Search for the Jewels: Step One
by Kay Hau
Summary: Robin and the Titans have to turn a clueless elemental, a handicapped empath, an airhead healer, and a cross-dressing bodyguard into a superhero team. Oh, and find the moral-less thief and rebellious inventor that the Justice League lost track of.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Early apologies, but there WILL be a total of six original characters that will play main characters in this series. Hopefully no Mary Sue's, but let me know if any are going that way. I will try to make it work, and hopefully it won't get too confusing juggling so many, plus the Teen Titans and Slade. The cliché but fun idea is to have the six travel to various manga/anime/book/cartoon/TV show worlds to collect jewel shards to save the universe! If it gets too confusing, let me know and I'll see what I can open to __any advice/criticism/comments/ideas, so send them my way!_  


_Author's Note 2: Complete rewrite of chapter one, posted 4/11/11. Will change later chapters to match new events. If you notice anything that you feel needs a rewrite, feel free to point it out to me. This story is still very much a work in progress, so don't hold back!  
_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.  
_

* * *

—Chapter One: The Clueless Elemental—

"Don't let them get away!" commanded a strong voice. It came from a confident young man atop an enormous and incredibly beautiful palomino stallion, who reared and whinnied loudly, as if assisting its master in relaying orders.

Around them, beaten and wounded villagers cheered at the coming of their heroes, the legendary Elementals, led by the one and only Light Knight, the Lord Sunray, the master of the sun itself.

"Oceania! Flora! Wisp! Assist the townspeople!" called out Lord Sunray, his eyes flashing. "Everyone else, with me!"

Without question, three girls leapt off horses and hurried to help the wounded. The rest took off at a gallop.

A fiery reddish-brown horse galloped along the young lord's right, a black horse to his left, and a gray one behind.

"Chill, Ray! They won't get far," laughed a cheerful red-haired young man on the reddish horse.

"We've got them right where we want them, brother," added a serious black-haired young man riding the black horse.

"Meeting in three minutes at current pace and direction," called out a stern, silver-haired young woman, pulling her gray horse alongside the reddish horse so that the four galloped together.

"Slow them up, Zirconia. Shadow, circle around," instructed Ray, hazel eyes flashing golden. "I'll support you."

"Oh, my," said the silver-haired young woman, a grin appearing on her face. "I haven't shaped a cliff in a while."

She dropped the reins, and with full confidence in the horse beneath her to continue its path, mimed a flat surface with her hands and began pushing up, her eyes closed tight with concentration and frowning with effort.

The black-haired young man and his black steed leapt forward and disappeared, vanishing into the shadows.

Beside them, the Light Knight's eyes blazed golden as he maximized Zirconia and Shadow's powers.

They heard a scream ahead, as the gang of thieves that had yet to come into view almost crashed into a cliff that rose from the earth right in front of them. The screaming continued, taking on a new depth as they found their escape route blocked by Shadow and his steed.

"Ash, you take the extras. I'll get the leader," growled Ray, dropping his own reins and readying his own hands, which began glowing and sparking as he collected the energy needed to strike down the one who had dared to wound and pillage innocents.

"No problemo, Ray," said the red head, grinning in anticipation. "I can't WAIT to burn some bad guy bu…"

And, before Ash's very eyes, the Light Knight vanished. Not like Shadow, who had earlier slipped into the darkness. Ray had completely and absolutely vanished in broad daylight. The palomino stallion skidded to a halt, almost tripping over its own hooves, and screamed in panic for its master.

* * *

Ray crashed hard to the ground, only barely breaking his fall by landing on his side and rolling. He groaned as he felt the energy he had charged up vanish.

_Oh, crap, I thought I was past stupid mistakes like falling off my own horse. Thank goodness my team is here to catch those…_

The Light Knight, who was really only seventeen years old, despite his usually heroic and confident appearance, sat up from his ungraceful position on the painfully hard ground and looked around.

And froze.

He was not… where he was supposed to be. His team, his family, was nowhere in sight. Even his horse was not to be seen.

What was to be seen was hundreds of townspeople in very strange clothes, walking past him on either side and giving him puzzled, slightly annoyed looks for blocking their way. He seemed to be on some sort of thoroughfare, a road of sorts, but there was no dirt beneath him, but some sort of gray rock that was perfectly smooth, flat, and cut into perfectly square sections. When he looked up and around, getting to his suddenly shaky feet, even the buildings were made of, and filled with, strange materials and objects.

Panic started to set in. A familiar panic, the one that plagued him whenever he found himself alone or despaired that he was not up to the monumental fate he had been born into. The panic that drove him into thinking he was deficient in some way or other, and thus incapable of effectively leading the Elementals and keeping his world safe. The panic that occasionally came up in nightmares as his mind replayed times he had almost lost one or more of his Elementals, his family…

He took a shaky breath and forced his feet to move out of the two-way pedestrian traffic, ducking into an alleyway alongside a shop of some sort, made out of what looked like extra-large bricks.

His hands were shaking. He fisted them and leaned back against the building, eyes shut tight.

_Not good not good not good… Ash? Zirconia? Shadow?_

Normally he could contact his team mentally, but there was nothing. The part of his mind that always seemed linked, connected to his family grasped blindly at nothing.

_Oceania? Flora? Wisp?_

Complete silence. He was completely separated from the rest of the Elementals. Wherever he was, he sensed it was far, far away from home. He took a deep breath, which helped him regain an appearance of being composed and confident, even if his heart was pounding away a mile a minute, and looked up and down the street with all the people. This was obviously real, not some sort of dream, so he had to get himself together and deal with it.

_What on earth happened? Where am I?_

A large wooden sign of some sort proclaimed the name of the town proudly. A city, not a town or village, which possibly explained all the people.

Jump City.

Some sort of alarm, a combination of whistles, bells, and some sort of screaming noise, suddenly blared from the building he was standing next to. He winced and covered his ears, noticing that all the people that had been walking by on the street suddenly started shouting and screaming and running away. Someone was laughing loudly from the store next to him, in that cruel tone used by selfish criminals everywhere.

The store suddenly flared with light and crackling energy and the alarm died. The laughing continued.

Ray frowned and lowered his hands from his ears. Besides the laughing, he heard the crying of at least one child and mother, and whimpering from various civilians.

"None shall stand against the brilliance of Dr. Light!" shouted what had to be some sort of insane, egotistical maniac.

"Hurting people? Not while I'm around," growled Ray, fisting his hands and marching around to the front of the store and throwing the glass door open.

A man in the strangest black costume with white accents and a yellow… something on his chest had his hands spread out, laughing insanely as ball lightning crackled around his hands, terrifying the civilians who had been shopping and now whimpered in corners, plus several shopkeepers.

"Stealing my ability? Shame on you," announced Ray, holding up his own hands, crackling with lightning.

"Who are you?" demanded the man, spinning around with a frown on his face. "Some other blasted Titan?"

"No idea what that is," commented Ray, as a lightning bolt sprung up in his hands far faster than he was used to. Regardless, he waved a hand and it charged for the villain, striking him in the chest and sending him flying into the nearest glass case of merchandise.

To Ray's surprise, the man suddenly smiled greedily and began climbing to his feet.

"Ah, another electrical superhero! My suit has been needing a boost lately. Thanks for the recharge! Why don't I take the rest of your electricity?" With that, the man flung his hands out towards Ray, with some sort of whips made of energy snapping out and winding their way around the Light Knight.

"What on earth is electricity?" asked Ray, frowning as he couldn't follow anything the man was talking about. He blinked and the energy whips disappeared. They were made of lightning as well, he could tell, but somehow channeled in a way that was completely alien to him.

The man froze and stared, completely in shock. "Is this some new sort of tactic?" he finally asked. "Playing stupid?"

Ray charged forward, glowing fists swinging, not liking that stupid comment.

The man actually leaped at him, grabbing the teenager around the neck and setting his hands on the boy's back.

Nothing.

"What? Aren't you an electrical superhero? A master of electricity?" shouted the man, as Ray wrestled him off.

"I have no idea what a superhero or what this 'electrical' stuff you keep talking about is!" insisted Ray, setting his own hands on the man's suit, sensing the great amount of lightning stored within and releasing it.

The crackling around the man's suit flared, then faded to nothing. "Blast you!" shouted the man, jumping away. "You've drained my suit! What kind of Titan are you?" He charged forward to exchange hand-to-hand blows with the unknown superhero.

"This is getting ANNOYING!" shouted Ray, his irritation at not understanding anything reaching a head. He clapped his hands and the area flooded with light, temporarily blinding everyone within the shop. Unfortunately, Dr. Light often used that sort of attack himself, so his goggles easily shaded his eyes from the flash. Even more unfortunately, the energy from the flash recharged his suit enough for him to throw out a different sort of energy weapon, another whip but this one designed to work against electrical superheroes. This one pulled electricity instead of releasing it.

Again, for some strange reason, draining the superhero didn't seem to work, until the teenager, not understanding the nature of the metal whip wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides, growled and tried to collect the energy around him to send it at the villain.

Dr. Light laughed as sparks collected around the whip and traveled back to his suit, recharging his battery to full immediately.

He stopped laughing when the boy narrowed his eyes, which suddenly glowed a fierce golden, and a wave of electrical energy blasted outwards from the boy, shorting out his suit, shattering the lights in the shop, and triggering the fire sprinklers, which started pouring water down to combat a nonexistent fire.

Dr. Light wanted to scream threats and run away, but the stunned, confused look of the boy gave him pause. The electrical superhero seemed to be in complete wonderment at the water falling from the ceiling, as if he thought it was raining indoors or something.

Was this boy really from another world or something?

* * *

Outside, on top of a building across from the jewelry store Dr. Light had been trying to rob, Robin was thinking the same thing as he watched the scene play out on his supped-up binoculars.

This superhero-of-sorts didn't seem to understand anything, and moreover didn't seem to have full control of his abilities. Did he have no idea how to fight? Did he think that if he just released all his energy at the bad guys that they would be defeated and he could go his merry way, having done his good deed for the day? He'd caused more damage than Dr. Light!

Seeing that the villain was about to escape while the wannabe superhero stood in a daze as the sprinklers poured down on him, Robin jumped down, landing right on Dr. Light's shoulders and bashing him to the ground. Robin quickly and efficiently handcuffed the villain and knocked him unconscious with a jab to the side of his neck. With his suit dead, the thief was pathetically easy to subdue and capture.

Robin frowned and headed into the shop, to see the wannabe, dressed in some sort of medieval outfit out of Robin Hood, except for his short cloak being a bright yellow, actually being shouted at by the store owner, who had not appreciated being blinded and having his store destroyed. If the boy was an actual Titan or something, than he might have made an exception, but for a young upstart…

The teenager didn't look insulted, as Robin had been expecting, but rather completely confused.

"Excuse me, sir," interrupted Robin. "I'll take him from here. The police will arrive in about five minutes for Dr. Light."

"Ah, Robin! Thank goodness! But couldn't you have stopped this fake earlier?"

"I apologize sir, but your insurance should cover all damages incurred in fights with supervillains," said Robin dismissively, grabbing the teenager's elbow and steering him out of the shop into the empty street. Police sirens could now be heard approaching the scene.

"What was that about?" hissed Robin, as he pulled the superhero along. "You should know that Jump City is Teen Titans turf. I would've had that situation under control with minimal damage inside of two minutes if you hadn't interfered! Where are you from? What's your affiliation?"

Ray had suddenly had enough. "WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE?" he demanded, planting his feet and ripping his arm from Robin's grip. "How many times do I have to say that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?"

"No idea?" growled Robin, grabbing Ray's arm again in case he was planning to run. "Just who are you?"

"That's MY question! I hear some villain trying to hurt people, and I went in to help, and he has some sort of strange powers that seem to come from his CLOTHING, and is talking about something called electricity and something called Titans and what are superheros anyway? And… and… I just want to go home." He groaned and put a hand to his forehead, not noticing the look of resignation and understanding coming over Robin's face.

"Look, I'm sorry," said Ray, taking a deep breath. "I was just trying to help. My name is Ray, I'm a Light Elemental, and I have no idea how I got here because twenty minutes ago I was with the rest of the Elementals, riding my horse and chasing after bandits…"

"I think I get it," said Robin, the harshly critical tone that had been in his voice gone, replaced by calm professionalism. "Calm down, Ray."

"What?"

"You're from either an alternate dimension or another world."

"A what now?"

"A different world. From your clothing and lack of knowledge of technology, probably one filled with horses, thieves, lords, knights, villagers, and kings, sound right? And you're somehow in charge of protecting that world."

"Yes, but what does that…"

"I've met people from other worlds before, and always managed to figure out how they got here and get them back home again. Follow me back to Titan's Tower and we'll get started looking for some sort of anomaly."

"You lost me again, but if I understand correctly, I'm far from home and you can get me back, right?"

"Yes. My name is Robin. I'm the leader of the Teen Titans, a group of teenage superheroes who protect this city."

* * *

_Author's Note: Again, this is an entirely new chapter one, so there will be inconsistencies between this and later chapters. Feel free to point out those inconsistencies or give your opinion about the chapter! I was having a serious problem with people not reading past chapter one of this story, so hopefully this new version is more interesting! Thanks for reading and PLEASE PLEASE review!  
_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Notes: Complete rewrite, posted 4/17/11. Will change later chapters to match new events. If you notice anything that you feel needs a rewrite, please point it out to me so that I may correct it in future rewrites/editing._

* * *

—Chapter Two: The Overwhelmed Empath—

"Prince Okin's treaty is fair, your highness, and I sense no deceit in him. We should move ahead with the alliance as soon as possible," said a young man with pitch black hair and eyes. He was dressed in the completely black slacks and top usually associated with members of traveling clans, but wore the brilliant blue sash that marked him as a highly ranked official in the kingdom of Jarked.

King Jerome of Jarked, a large, cheerful looking man, with orange-red hair and beard, leaned back on his throne, appraising his chief advisor.

"I trust your senses, Counselor Reville, but I believed I had made it clear that I no longer desired a marriage alliance with Reduke."

Reville stood up taller, his face determined. "Politically, King Jerome, we cannot pass this up. It will allow Jarked to present a united front against Marmak. King Kajor's threats have been escalating to the point we can no longer ignore them. The man may very well try to incite war, and you refuse to meet with him for peace talks."

"That wicked man only wants one thing, Reville. And you know as well as I what that thing is. You. The empath that got away."

Reville flinched, but bowed his head. "I would be most willing…"

"Absolutely not. You are the chief advisor in my court, my most valued counselor."

"Then, your highness, we must accept the alliance with Reduke."

"No."

The young man glared at the large king, exasperation clear on his face. "Why?" he demanded, dropping the appropriate courtesies in a simple act of rebellion against the stubborn king.

"Because you hate Reduke."

Reville frowned and rubbed his forehead with a hand, allowing his irritation to show. It did not help at all that Jerome was absolutely confident and completely at ease, despite the urgency of the situation.

"Reduke was my home kingdom, and King Ralt had every right to do as he did to me. As I no longer live there, it is no longer an issue. As your chief advisor, I fully support this alliance."

"Well, what if I said the matter was personal?"

"Personal feelings have no place in a royal court." The young empath glared at his king. "There is no reason Princess Shara should refuse to marry Prince Okin. He is a strong ruler and an intelligent man. He is honest and forthright, and will only do what he believes best for his people. He is also only four years older than the princess, as well as known to be quite attractive. There is no valid reason to refuse this."

"Shara is in love with you."

Reville's posture stiffened.

"And I know you're in love with her. Just marry the poor girl anyway, would you? You would make an excellent king."

Reville glared. "Absolutely not, and I know Shara is hiding behind your throne listening to this entire conversation. Did you really think you could hide someone from my senses?"

A beautiful, red-haired teenage girl came out from behind the throne, her face, and the emotions flowing off her, full of distress.

"Why, Reville? Father approves of us," she said, the words obviously a strain to get out. Her large, watery blue eyes stared pleadingly at Reville.

"An empath cannot become a king, Princess. It is that simple. As we have never courted, I see no reason for this matter to have come up in the first place."

"But I…" she began, getting cut off by a cold glare from the young man she loved.

"No. Marry Okin, send me back to Kajor, or prepare for war. Those are your options."

With that, the empath turned and limped out of the room as quickly as he could with his bad leg, forcing himself not to rush forward and comfort his best friend, who was now in her father's arms, crying her heart out.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, he found himself close to crying. He hid his eyes behind a hand and took a shuddering breath, trying to force his emotions back.

He did love Shara. She was kind, beautiful, intelligent, and honest… and she loved him. There was no mistaking that warm glow of emotion he felt from her every time she looked at him, nor the undisguised admiration in her sparkling eyes. Even though he was an empath, even though he was handicapped, even though it was his fault she had been captured and nearly been tortured in the past. She had been his best friend for over five years, whereas that idiot Okin knew nothing about her other than her being the crown princess of Jarked.

_No! I have no right to desire such a thing_, he reminded himself, for not the first time, and certainly far from the last. _I can't have her. She's a princess. She belongs to Jarked, to its people, and not to any one person. Certainly not an empath, who is nothing more than a tool to whichever kingdom is lucky enough to claim him. _

_Why can't I convince myself of something so simple?_

After he had gotten control of himself, he lowered his hand, and stared down the palace halls, trying to find peace. However, before his very eyes, the world seemed to shift, and suddenly he was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere completely foreign and alarmingly loud.

* * *

Reville was surrounded by hundreds of people of all ages. Possibly thousands. They were certainly real, as he could feel their thoughts on the edge of his senses, and their emotions as the waves on a beach, each successive wave that much closer to flooding his mind. For the first time in his life, there was too much pounding against his empathic senses for him to even isolate the individual emotions. All he could feel was one big, ugly, swirly brown mess pressing down painfully.

Plus they were all talking. At the same time, to different people, about different subjects. The hundreds of voices through his ears and the thousands of voices trickling through his telepathic senses were beginning to get mixed up. He quickly thickened his mental guard, trying to block out at least the voices coming through his telepathy.

He narrowed his eyes against a rapidly increasing headache and looked around. Wherever he was, it was real. In his dreams, he never sensed thoughts or felt emotions. Usually he just relived nightmarish events from when he'd belonged to the sadistic King Kajor. So, if this was not a dream, and certainly not one of those nightmares, where was he?

A giant sign declared "Welcome to the newly remodeled Jump City Mall!"

Mall. He knew what a mall was. A large outdoor market where merchants would gather and set up their stalls. Sometimes it would fill a whole plaza, but usually it just stretched down a long street.

Well, he certainly wasn't outdoors, but it did appear to be some sort of market. The people rushing past him carried armloads of goods, mostly consisting of clothing as far as he could tell.

Jump City. Never heard of it. But it was a city, so it was big, and it had a name, so it was a large place with history and had to be on a map somewhere. He would have to find a map, which meant he probably would need to find some sort of library. Most large cities had location markers on strategically placed signs…

There! What looked like a giant sign. It even had the word "Directions" written at the top in large letters.

Wow, his head hurt. The giant mess pressing against him seemed to have encircled his brain and started to squeeze. His mind throbbed, but he made his way through the crowd, limping over to the large sign which was apparently some sort of map of this mall.

Okay, maps were good. He could read maps. This one was even marked with a handy "You Are Here!" tag. Reville scanned the map and found the quickest way from the "You Are Here!" to the nearest point marked "Entrance/Exit," ignoring the names of various merchants and the like.

Before he even thought about getting to a library, he had to get out of this overcrowded mall. His thinking was beginning to get fuzzy as his control began slipping, unable to handle holding up against such an enormous quantity of emotion and thoughts. He was about halfway to the exit when suddenly the thousands of thoughts burst through his mental guard, overwhelming his mind with senseless jabbering and heavy weights of mixed up emotions not his own.

He nearly fell flat on his face. As it was, his bad leg gave out and he stumbled, only just catching the back of a bench, his face contorted with pain.

A strong arm grabbed his and helped him to the bench, where he buried his face in his hands and struggled to rebuild his mental walls, a nearly impossible feat after they had been shattered so completely.

_Let me help,_ said a strong, confident young woman's voice, pushing past all the miscellaneous thoughts and emotions into the core of his mind.

_Help? How…?_

_Concentrate. Focus. I'll shield your mind until you are recovered. _

And, sure enough, a sort of black shadow that the overwhelmed empath found extremely calming wrapped around his mind, blocking out all the intrusive emotions and thoughts.

Reville sighed in relief and quickly focused on his mental walls, reconfirming his own existence and repairing his mind, allowing his senses to recover from the onslaught. As his strength returned, the calming shadow retreated, leaving behind the impression of a raven as it finally left his mind.

Reville looked up, and found himself sitting next to a strangely beautiful girl, with pale white skin, large, dark violet eyes, chin-length purple hair, and a dark blue cape over an all black outfit. A gemstone was set in her forehead. And she felt like…

"Are you…?" he began.

"An empath/telepath? Yes, among other things," she said, in a cold monotone.

"Thank you."

* * *

Raven examined the young empath in front of her. He was closer in age to Cyborg than herself, either eighteen or nineteen. His giant, almond-shaped eyes were startling, a pitch black so deep she could not distinguish the pupil from the iris. Medium-brown skin, set in a face with handsome, possibly middle-eastern features and surrounded by hair as pitch black as his eyes.

Her eyes swept down to his outfit, almost as out of place at the mall as her own. He wore all black, loose slacks, loose shirt, except for a bright blue sash around his slim waist. He was quite tall, and athletically trim rather than thin.

In all honesty, he looked like a character from the book _Arabian Nights._ She wouldn't be surprised if he gave his name as Aladdin or mentioned being related to a sheik.

And he was an empath/telepath. It had been a while since she last ran into one. He was quite powerful as well, though is control was not up to par with the level of his abilities.

"You lack focus," she said coldly.

His slight smile and air of thankfulness disappeared at her accusation.

"You were seconds from breaking. And I'm sure we both know what happens when an empath/telepath breaks."

His presence turned from interested and curious to cold and closed-off, though Raven sensed a trace a pain behind his words.

"Thank you for your well-warranted advice," he said stiffly, standing up from the bench. "But I must be on my way." He began limping off in the direction of the nearest exit.

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting to her own feet.

"I fail to see how that is any of your business."

Raven's eyes narrowed and took the few steps needed to catch up to him.

"It is indeed my business. I belong to a group in charge of protecting this city. I had finished apprehending a villainess upstairs," she gestured off towards another section of the mall, "when I felt the presence of an empath/telepath appear out of nowhere, though I can sense you do not have the ability of teleportation. I came to observe, and as I approached I felt your mind nearly break, endangering everyone in this mall. Now, you tell me if I should let you go."

They had stopped walking as Raven began her little speech.

"No," said Reville quietly. "No, you shouldn't."

"I see we agree on something. Now, where were you going and where are you from?"

"I live in the kingdom of Jarked. I was going to leave this mall to find a library, with the hopes of finding my way back, as I do not know how I got here."

Raven frowned. "I have never heard of Jarked, and I do not believe you are from this world. As I did not sense a temporal distortion in time or space, perhaps this was some sort of mechanical teleportation."

Confusion and fear surrounded the empathic teenager. It seemed he understood most of her words, but it was taking a minute for comprehension to sink in.

"Not… of this world? I'm in a different world entirely?"

"I believe so. We Teen Titans have faced similar situations in the past. Allow me to contact our team leader to let him know of this, and I'll take you back to Titans Tower while we figure this out."

Reville nodded and Raven pulled out her communicator.

"Robin?" she called.

"Robin here. Yes, Raven?" came a voice out of the communicator. From the startled look on Reville's face, it appeared his world was one where radio technology had not yet been invented.

"I've run into an empath possibly from another world. He is not immediately dangerous and he has no idea how he got here or how to get home."

A sigh from Robin crackled over the communicator before he replied.

"I've run into someone from another world as well, Raven. Some sort of superhero, and he appears to be from a world far less advanced than ours. Perhaps there was some sort of spatial anomaly?"

Raven blinked in surprise. She looked over at Reville, who shrugged helplessly.

"I did not sense one, but it would explain their presences. If that is indeed the case, there could be more."

"Take the empath back to the Tower, Raven, and begin scanning for a source to this problem and any other strange presences. I'll contact Cyborg to scan for any physical anomalies or signs of mechanical teleportation. Agreed?"

"Agreed, Robin. I'm on my way."

* * *

_Author's Note: Again, this is an entirely new chapter two, so there will be inconsistencies between this and later chapters. Feel free to point out those inconsistencies and/or give your opinions about this chapter! Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing what you think._


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Notes: Complete rewrite, posted 4/27/11. Will change later chapters to match new details. If you notice anything that you feel needs a rewrite, please point it out to me so that I may correct it in future rewrites/editing._

* * *

—Chapter Three A: The Gentle Almost-Elf—

* * *

"_But… Lore, what would our children be like?"_

Why would they have anything wrong with them? Or do you mean… you're afraid they'd be like me?

"_Lore… you have to understand. I want to make a difference…"_

And you can't do that with me? …What am I thinking? Of course you can't. I'll never have that sort of power.

"_I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the coming-out party, but you were in Klazar and…"_

It only takes two days by messenger bird. But… I'm sure you had your reasons… Some people feel awkward around Wateria's elf, after all…

"_I love you, just… it won't work."_

What does that mean? I don't understand. You won't marry me?

"_I'm sorry, Lore. I'm so, so sorry…"_

I am too, Maya. It hurts… No. I can't let it hurt. It doesn't hurt.

"_Are you mad?"_

Of course not. I can't get mad. People get hurt if I do. You would get hurt.

"_It's not like we'll never see each other again. I'll always be your friend."_

That will be enough. It has to be.

"Maya… let's not talk about this again."

I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I thought that you… I'm sorry.

* * *

A beautiful teenager with long white hair and dressed in an elegant robe trimmed in silver and purple was stirred from his dreams by a heavy weight on his chest. He opened his eyes to see a large green cat curled up on top of him, purring as it rested. It must have crawled up there while he was sleeping. That was no surprise – he often woke to animals on his chest, against his side, or draped over his legs.

What was odd was that he was sure he'd fallen asleep in a bed. In King Barrick's castle in Northern Klazar. Why did it feel like he was sleeping on the ground?

Lore reached out a hand and ran it over the grass. Yes, grass. He was outside, sleeping in the grass. It appeared to be mid-day, though he didn't feel like he'd overslept.

The boy sat up, carefully shifting the cat to his lap so as not disturb it, and looked skywards with large purple eyes. It was a beautiful day. Bright and sunny. Very warm. Birds singing, dogs barking, squirrels chattering.

He sighed in pleasure and looked around. It appeared to be a large garden of some sort, and he was quite appreciative of the style. Instead of mounds upon mounds of flowers and bushes and trees so close breathing was difficult, it was mostly a wide expanse of grass, spotted with wooden benches, with the occasional tree and a medium-sized lake. Dogs ran freely with their sparsely dressed owners, birds sang cheerfully and plentifully from the trees and where they hopped along on the ground and in the bushes, cats prowled around, quietly stalking the various rodents going about their business. Some people were sitting in groups on blankets or sheets, eating lunches while talking and laughing, while other played with various sorts of discs and balls.

How beautiful… The easygoing boy smiled happily and untied a piece of string from around his wrist, which he used to tie back his incredible waist-length silky white hair in a low ponytail.

Lore stretched and allowed himself to relax. He had no idea where he was, but it really didn't matter. Someone would come for him eventually, so he might as well enjoy this peace while it lasted. Wherever he was, it was beautiful. Besides, when he worried it tended to cause serious damage to the surrounding flora and fauna. It'd been nothing short of disastrous when he was a child. For now, he would relax and enjoy the bright sun, beautiful view, and enjoyable surroundings.

The grass around him seemed to brighten up and even spontaneously flower. All the shrubs and trees in the park suddenly decided it was springtime and burst into blossom, growing before the very eyes of anyone paying attention. Dogs suddenly abandoned their owners to rush over to the strange white-haired teenage boy sitting in the grass, who was already surrounded by birds, cats, squirrels, chipmunks, and even lizards.

Lore didn't even notice, but the large green cat in his lap slowly woke up. It stretched out its legs and snuggled against his chest, before suddenly jumping back and turning into a startled green boy, dressed in purple with pointy ears.

* * *

Beastboy had no idea why he'd woken as a cat in some random Lord of the Rings cosplaying teenager's lap. He only remembered suddenly deciding to walk towards the lake in the park. It was a strange decision, apparently something instinctual, something he didn't understand that had drawn him here. That something didn't seem threatening or dangerous. Just… something he had to see. Something a part of him deeply desired to be close to.

And here he way, facing a robe-wearing, uncommonly beautiful teenage guy with long white hair in a ponytail down his back. The boy had his eyes closed and was facing the sun, completely oblivious to the world around him. The teenager, probably older than him by a few years, around Robin's age, sat in the middle of an amazing array of flowers and sprouts and animals of all shapes and sorts. All the animals seemed perfectly at peace just sitting or laying around the stranger, as if his very presence itself was a source of calm.

Beastboy frowned, realizing it was. The strange calm, the fuzziness in his mind, was from this weird boy, he was sure of it. The guy had some sort of freaky, manipulative power.

He shook his head roughly, but the cloud didn't go away. Now that he was aware of it, though, he could do something about it. The green shapeshifter grabbed the strange boy's arm, jolting him alert.

"Yo, dude! Cut it out! Yeah, it feels good and all, but Raven already says I don't do enough thinking without my brain _entirely_ shutting off!"

The boy blinked in surprise. For one thing, the boy in front of him was green, the same shade as the cat that had been in his lap but was now gone. For another, the green boy was speaking to him, acknowledging that Lore had a brain and a will. For a third, he was saying he had been affected by Lore's presence? He'd never affected another person before.

"I apologize," said Lore, sounding more surprised than sorry. "I did not know my power could affect certain people, or I assure you I would have been more careful not to relax quite so much."

Beastboy met the boy's violet eyes, similar to Raven's but open and earnest where Raven's were dark and closed. Well, he didn't seem like a bad guy. "My name's Beastboy. Who're you?"

"Lore. It is nice to meet you, Beastboy."

"What were you doing? Was that some superpower?"

"You mean the strange affect my emotions have on plants and animals? I wasn't really doing anything, to be honest."

Beastboy frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, a lot of superpowers are caused or controlled by emotions. Starfire can't use hers at all if she can't feel the right emotions, though that's rarely a problem for her. Raven's the opposite. Her powers go bazooka if she lets herself feel ANY emotions! It's gotta be tough."

"Sometimes. If I can stay relaxed and cheerful there aren't any problems."

"Come to think of it, dude, Starfire and Raven are both aliens. Well, I think Raven counts as an alien… Anyway, are you one too?"

"What is an alien?"

"Someone not human, from another world out there." Beastboy waved his arm skyward.

"I am human, but I am not sure how I got here. So perhaps I am from another world. This one seems quite pleasantly unfamiliar to me," said Lore thoughtfully.

Beastboy frowned. "You don't know how you got here? Dude, shouldn't you be upset?"

"This is a very nice place. I'm fine."

"If you say so, Lore."

Just then Beastboy's communicator beeped. He picked it up and flicked it on. "Robin? You there?"

"Beastboy! Where on earth are you? I thought you were supposed to be in the Tower with Cyborg and Starfire!"

"Oh, Cyborg kicked me out and Star was making something that smelled _really_ strange in the kitchen, so I went for a walk in the park. What's up?"

"Raven and I each ran into someone probably from another world. If there was some sort of anomaly or distortion, there could be more, so I wanted you to keep an eye out for…"

Beastboy glanced at Lore, then suddenly grinned.

"Hey, Rob?" he interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Does a white-haired guy in a robe that can control plants and animals with his emotions and has no idea how he got here the type of person you're talking about?"

"… I'm not even going to answer that. Just take him to the Tower, Beastboy. Robin out."

"Okay. See ya."

Beastboy turned off the communicator and smiled at Lore. "That's my boss. You heard the man. Want to come see my home? It's that tower over there, on the island." He pointed at a giant T in the middle of the bay, just visible from their spot in the park.

"Sure," said Lore easily. "Why not?"

* * *

—Chapter Three B: The Overly Serious Bodyguard—

* * *

"What about this one?" a beautiful brown-haired girl in a private school's uniform asked her bodyguard, a stiff-looking, though exceedingly handsome black-haired, blue-eyed elf in a stiff black suit. She was holding out a magazine, pointing at a picture of a red Chinese-style gown with a long slit up the side.

"Milady, that is quite inappropriate."

"Not for me! For you!"

The elf didn't even blink. "Princess Isalla. That is impossible."

"But you would be soooo pretty in it! No-one has to know!" insisted the princess. Her brown eyes were completely serious as they stubbornly met the elf's blue ones. "You could try it on in my room! I could do your hair and everything!"

"I am male, princess."

"Oh, but..."

"It is a fact."

"Fine, fine, have it your way, _Arthur_," grumbled Princess Isalla, folding up the magazine and setting it back on a shelf.

The two were in the royal Maeriano family's private library, ostensibly doing research for an essay due the following week. Really, Arthur was trying to do research and the princess was fooling around. Well, to be fair, the princess was trying to cheer up her bodyguard, who seemed even more cold than usual.

"Did you have another fight with your father?"

"…"

"That must be hard. Did he hit you?"

"…"

Arthur looked away from the princess' piercing gaze. Isalla would have none of that and grabbed her friend's arm.

"You are good enough, Arthur. You're the best. No matter what he says."

"… Thank you, Princess."

"When will you call me Isalla?"

Arthur finally smiled slightly.

"Thank you, Isalla," the elf whispered.

"I care about you, Arthur," whispered Isalla back. "You're my best friend, and you always look after me. Can't I help you? You can't keep doing this forever."

"Your thoughts are enough, princess," replied the elf, bowing slightly and turning around the end of shelves to continue looking for books for their research.

"Arthur?" queried Isalla. No answer. The princess sighed and picked up a book that actually was related to their assignment, though the glint in her eyes announced that she hadn't given up the idea of helping her bodyguard.

* * *

And Arthur suddenly found himself… NOT in the library. He was facing a beautiful blue ocean and standing on a beach.

He had no idea what had happened. That was bad. Arthur _always_ knew what was going on, it was quite literally in his job description. But he had no idea what had happened, where he was, and more importantly, what had happened to Isalla. His best friend, the person he had sworn to protect and serve for his whole life.

Of course, Arthur hadn't had a choice in the matter. His family was required to provide a bodyguard to each member of the royal line. It was just his bad luck that his older brother, who had been appointed Crown Princess Isalla's bodyguard, had died shortly after the princess' birth. His bad luck that he had looked so much like his brother and been just as skilled at fighting, enough so that his father and his highness had decided to simply pull a swap and not tell anyone about it.

His bad luck that bodyguards were required to be male, and so _she_ had become a _he_ and had to live uncomfortably in hiding.

It had been easy to replace Arthur with Artemis, as Princess Isalla hadn't met her bodyguard yet, as she was still being cared for by a nursemaid. A bodyguard wasn't necessary until they started entering the public eye. The only thing her father had had to do was throw out all her female clothing and accessories and force her into strict bodyguard training. Things hadn't gotten complicated until later, when her chest had started to grow and various other female problems started. The chest problem was solved with a vest beneath her crisp white shirt. Slight changes to her uniform, a simple black suit, effectively hid her new, and thankfully slight, curves.

And threatening her with death should she be discovered effectively solved the other problems, as Artemis became incredibly inventive afterwards. She'd quickly found that a simple smile towards the maids, and they'd help her with anything, no matter how strange the request. Though she found it quite disturbing that the poor girls were falling in love left and right with _Arthur_, who truly did not exist anymore.

Right now Artemis' confused mind was panicking, knowing she'd die if it was found out she'd abandoned the princess, regardless of circumstances. Elves, as her people were called by the humans, never got second chances. That was why there were fewer than 30 left, including half-breeds. She hated herself for it, but honestly she was more worried about her own safety than Princess Isalla, who was probably still happily flipping through a book in her father's library.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She fixed the sword at her waist, then looked back out at the ocean, before turning around and looking at the giant T-shaped building on the island with her.

Yes, it was real.

She viciously shoved a pitiful and disgustingly feminine _"Why me?"_ to the back of her mind and focused on the situation.

This was a problem. But not an unsolvable one, she was sure. She'd been in scrapes before, though granted none involved reappearing in the blink of an eye in an entirely different place.

Well, she had to get home. The quicker the better. That meant she would have to figure out where she was. How she had gotten here was unimportant unless it held the way back.

She heard voices coming from around the corner.

* * *

"Okay, Robin, no prob. I'll run a sweep over the city searching for any strange signatures. If they were teleported here by some mechanical device, I'll find some trace of them. Afterwards I'll patrol the…"

"Excuse me?"

Cyborg looked up in shock to see a foreign-looking young man, perhaps some sort of Middle Eastern and Asian mix, in a fine suit with a sword at his side. Wait, young woman. He frowned. His sensors definitely read woman, and the face was certainly a little too fine-featured.

"I hate to interrupt, but may I ask where I am?"

Cyborg blinked at her, looked around to double check that there were no boats or planes of any kind anywhere on this side of the island, then gave her a strange look and gestured up at the Tower.

"You have no idea where you are? The giant T doesn't tell you? Island in the middle of the bay? Cybernetic black guy talking on a communicator to a guy named Robin?"

"I would not ask if I knew, sir."

Cyborg blinked again, then lifted the communicator to his mouth. "Rob, I got another one. Unless there's a chance someone could appear on our island without transportation and have no idea who we are."

"Roger, Cyborg. I'll be there shortly. Beastboy and Raven should also be on their way."

"Another one?" queried the strange young woman, sighing. "Is this a common occurrence around here?"

"More common than you'd think," said Cyborg, shrugging. "Can I get your name? And where you're from?"

"Sir Arthur Slate, Knight of Vitania and Guardian to her highness, Crown Princess Isalla Maeriano. I am from the Ricel Parveau in Vitania."

Apparently she really was trying to pass herself off as a guy. He'd let it slip, for now anyway. "Never heard of it."

She blinked. "It's the richest country in the world."

"I think you better come to grips with the idea that this may not be your world."

"Ridiculous. How could such a thing be possible?"

"Technology. If not that, magic."

"Magic does not exist," said the young woman with absolute confidence.

"Well, here it does. Though I'm more comfortable with superpowers than magic, myself. Easier to explain scientifically. I don't mean to be rude, but for the sake of finding a common ground, may I ask what you are? Race-wise?"

"I am an elf, of course," she said simply, gesturing to her ears, as pointed as Beastboy's. Now that Cyborg looked closer, her hair did seem more of a dark, dark blue than a black.

Cyborg couldn't help himself. He sighed. An elf, from another world, posing as the opposite sex, with a knighthood, that didn't believe in magic. This might be a challenge.

The sooner the others got back the better.

* * *

_Author's Note: Again, this is an entirely new chapter three, so there will be inconsistencies between this and later chapters. Thanks for reading and please review!_


	4. Chapter 4

-Chapter Four: The Playful Thief and the Rebel Engineer-

Key had no idea what had happened. She had been sitting in front of the open safe, her gloved hand inches from snatching the jeweled crown, her tongue licking her lips in anticipation, her mind already daydreaming of how much gold she could sell the jewels for on the black market, when her hand closed on nothing.

She blinked.

She was not in Mr. Highland's secret underground room where he hid his safe. She was in a strange room, all locked gray drawers on all except to her left, where there was a giant steel door with an impressive lock system. Her mind took it all in, and she realized she was in a bank. A bank's vault. She smiled and checked to make sure her green top hat was still in place, not paying any attention to the boy sitting next to her.

Matt had no idea where he was, though he actually did have an idea what had happened, being familiar with instantaneous molecular teleportation. Not that his knowledge helped his confusion any. For one thing, he had been nowhere near the teleportation room. For another, this room was completely unrecognizable, and looked about 300 years out of date.

It resembled a security outfit room, like those used for storing weapons. He'd certainly broken into enough of those to recognize the lines of locked boxes. Nothing besides weapons were worth locking up. The room was undoubtedly booby trapped. Who knew what terrible devices would be activated if he so much as breathed wrong.

Or not, as proven by the girl next to him casually getting to her feet, pulling a few pieces of wire from her hair beneath, of all things, a green top hat, walking up the nearest vault, unlocking it, and sliding it open before he could get his protest past his lips.

She frowned in annoyance, pulling out giant stacks of printed green paper. "Pah, cash. That stuff's worthless since the crash. Where's the gold? She emptied the box casually on the ground, then moved on the next, which was also stuffed with the green paper she'd called 'cash'.

Strangely, even to Matt, the first words out of his mouth were not about her actions.

"You're HUMAN?" he exclaimed in shock, looking her up and down. A girl maybe a little older than him, with curly, dark red hair, dark brown skin, and dressed in a comfortable black outfit with a bright green top hat. No paws or claws, scales or tails, even her ears were rounded. Well, maybe his reaction wasn't such a surprise. In his whole life, the only other human he'd ever seen was his dad who'd been killed when Matt was five.

She turned around and her eyes gave him a quick once over, before dismissing his appearance as nothing noteworthy. The cute and innocent type, being rather short, with yellow blond hair, round green eyes, and dressed in what looked like a schoolboy's uniform. "You are too, unless my eyes are trickin' me," she said casually, moving on to the next box.

"Well, yeah. But I was the only human on my planet. Do you know where we are?" asked the boy.

"We're in a bank vault, of course. Filled with moo-lah. At least, it's supposed to be." She scowled and dumped more green paper on the ground. Handfuls and handfuls of the stuff. She glanced his way again. "I'm Key, by the way. A thief, and quite a good one. In case there's some deep reason as to why we ended up trapped in a vault together. We could be here awhile, you know."

"I'm Matt, an engineer with the Rebel Alliance, and why would you think we might not be able to get out?" answered the boy, getting up and walking over to the vault door. He examined it carefully, taking special interest in the keypad beside the door.

The thief showed not the slightest interest in the boy being an engineer, just as he seemed perfectly fine with her profession. She simply answered his question as she continued emptying boxes of cash on the ground.

"Betcha double or nothing it's on a timer. The keypad only works during certain hours. Type in the code, and you still have to wait for the right hours before it opens. And I bet even that only works if someone outside approves the blasted thing."

"What if we…" began Matt thoughtfully, pulling a small tool from a secret pocket in the lining of his pants. He fiddled with the back of the keypad, punched what looked to be random numbers into the machine, then simply yanked the whole thing off the wall. There was an audible click sound as the door unlocked.

Key laughed. "Sweet!" she exclaimed, then grabbed Matt's arm and pulled him alongside her and she shoved open the huge door. "There's nothing but garbage in here anyway. Come on!"

Unfortunately, and quite to the surprise of the two kids from other worlds, complete with other time zones, it was apparently mid-day and the bank was packed. Around 20 tellers and 8 managers of various sorts turned as the vault swung open and stared in shock at the two teenagers, some sort of street-girl in black jeans, a black T-shirt, and a green top-hat, and an innocent-looking boy in some sort of uniform, consisting of a crisp white button-down shirt and brown slacks.

One of the tellers had the presence of mind to pound the emergency alarm.

The blaring noise instantly started, guards sprung out of hiding and charged, and customers and clients screamed and ran for the door, heedless of a recorded voice telling them to please stay in the building and line up along the walls to make way for security personnel.

Key laughed in delight, dodging and zipping past all of them with practiced ease. The skilled thief was like a little sparrow jumping around a bunch of fat pigeons. If she'd been carrying a prize from the vault, she would've waved it in their faces.

Contrary to his appearance, Matt was far from helpless. To everyone's surprise, including Key's, the young engineer fiddled in his hair before pulling out what looked like half a pencil. Until he pointed it at a guard, pressed a button which caused it to grow to the size and approximate shape of a small handgun, and fired, revealing it to be a laser-cannon as powerful as the ones the police used to combat supervillains. The guard went flying.

_Yikes, it doesn't look like their armor is that well made. Better turn it down a few notches,_ thought Matt, spinning a tiny piece on the end of his weapon, his eyes automatically scanning the room for cameras. There was no end to them, to the point it wasn't even worth taking them out. It certainly wasn't worth the time to disable them or destroy the feed, as would usually be his top priority.

He frowned. These guards could not be the best this facility had to offer. Undoubtedly a stronger force was on the way. Why else would they need an alarm? They were alerting someone.

"Let's get out of here!" he shouted to Key, holding his mini laser-cannon ready, aiming and firing at whoever came too close.

"Ah, already? I just met you, and I already know you're a downer at parties."

"There's probably someone stronger coming. And you said they didn't have anything good anyway, remember?"

"Hmm. You got a point. Let's go."

She zipped around the guards charging them, heading towards the door. Matt made sure she got there, then to everyone's shock as he was surrounded, knelt and casually leaped over the heads of the guards who had almost been on top of him. It was quite a sight to see a child about the height of an average 12 year old leap up and over the heads of the four guards, each well over six feet tall.

At the door they crashed into someone. A tall girl with bright red hair, strange glowing green eyes, a strange purple outfit, and apparently hovering about a foot off the ground. She rubbed her head for a second before noticing them.

"My most earnest apologies for the head-butting with you!" she shouted, already flying past them and into the bank. Her hands glowed fiercely, crackling with powerful energy.

Matt and Key took off, both recognizing from the strong fighter's look on the girl's face that she must be the bank's 'backup'. That, plus the sound of approaching sirens, stirred them into running as fast as they could down the street and into the nearest alley, thankfully attaching up to a long network of alleys and backstreets.

* * *

They ran until Matt collapsed, falling face-first to the ground. Key dropped next to him, winded but not nearly as exhausted as the boy. They were in another dark alley, behind a large warehouse of sorts. In all honesty, it was kind of spooky. Dark and gloomy, though they hadn't been running for more than 10 minutes.

"We gotta hide, just in case. That chick could fly, remember? She must be on our tail by now," said Key, once she'd caught her breath. She helped Matt up, and tried the door into the warehouse. It opened easily. They ducked inside, Key shutting the door behind them once they were in.

It was pitch black inside. All the windows had been boarded up with large squares of plywood, not letting even a trace of sunlight in. Matt pulled another strange object from a secret pocket and suddenly he had a long glowing string wrapped around his right hand. It glowed brightly enough for them to see each other and about five feet in each direction.

"Children, you are very lost," said a deep, and extremely smooth voice that seemed to echo around them. "Far from your homes, in a world you cannot possibly be accepted in."

The thief and engineer subconsciously stepped closer together and moved so they covered each other's backs.

A man in a strange orange and black outfit, his face hidden by a mask divided by the same colors, stepped out from the darkness into their small patch of light.

"There is no need to fear me, young ones. I can help you, if you but let me."

"Who are you?" demanded Key. The expression on Matt's face obviously mirrored the suspicion in the girl's words.

"I am called Slade."

* * *

_Author's Note: Sorry, guys. I really meant to have Starfire talk to them a bit more, but it just wasn't working out. Except for the top-hat, the two of them look fairly normal, so it wouldn't make sense for Starfire to stick around and talk to them when a bank right behind them has the alarms blaring. I figured she would automatically assume the burglars were still in the bank and charge past them. Anyway, next chapter will probably skip what's happening with Matt and Key and move back to my other OCs and the Teen Titans. The situation will be explained to these poor visitors from other worlds, none of whom are familiar with teleportation, and the Teen Titans will have to collect information on them in order to help them. At some point, I plan on having the Titans train my OCs to better use their abilities/talents, as right now (with the possible exception of Artemis) they're all pretty helpless. You'll see what I mean._


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Notes: Revised 4.29.11 Enjoy!  
_

* * *

—Chapter Five: A Meeting of Worlds—

Cyborg was entering the Teen Titan's main room with Artemis, the strange crossdressed elfin girl, when Raven teleported into the room with Reville, the black-haired empath.

Raven gestured for Reville to sit on the couch, and Cyborg, thinking that was a good idea, asked Arthur if she would like to do the same. She nodded curtly and took a seat on the far end of the couch from the empathic boy.

Raven and Cyborg went into the kitchen to compare notes and get drinks and snacks.

Reville stretched his legs out in front of him, wincing at a slight cramp in his bad leg. His head was clear for the first time since coming to this world, not a voice inside it but his own. If he closed his eyes, he could sense the minds of the serious person in the room with him, and Raven and the strange metal man from the kitchen, but it was only at the normal level. Nothing more than the impressions his empathy usually gave him.

The person sitting on the end of the couch was quite strange, Reville decided. He looked perfectly calm and serious, and most of the time his emotions were dead flat and steady, but every now and then there was a strange spike. It appeared to be fear or anxiety. Reville wouldn't pry, though, no matter how easy it would be to. It was none of his business.

"I'm Reville," he said. "Apparently I'm from another world. Same with you?"

"Yes," said the strange boy, not volunteering any information on his part.

Reville shrugged, stretching his shoulders and allowing his mind to open further.

Raven's mind was blank and flat, as was no surprise to him. He hadn't sensed a thing from her, even when she'd been inside his mind.

The metal man's emotions were mostly calm, with a strange twist to it that Reville recognized as puzzlement. The man was probably thinking of this crazy situation, trying to figure out what had happened.

Reville sensed four people approaching from below and turned his focus downward, to the base of the tower.

One mind was strong and fiery, brimming with confidence and a small bit of irritation. The one closest to that one was also strong, and but gave off a hum of worry and confusion. Confusion not just about the situation, but a more general confusion, as if not even sure what he was looking at or what anything was.

The other two minds were quite mild. A small, immature glow, with a cheerful, bubbly type of warmth, but there was some sort of deep layer behind it. The last was a very relaxed, bright-colored mind, glittering with curiosity.

They would be quite a treat to meet. He smiled slightly in anticipation. He never had this type of variety at home.

* * *

Raven collected several cups and prepared a pot of herbal tea for their guests, being sure to use a tea with a mild, calming flavor to help ease the emotions of everyone involved in this crazy situation.

"Were you able to sense anything more?" asked Cyborg, grabbing several bags of chips and other snacks.

"No, and neither the boy I found, nor the girl you found, have any sort of teleportation ability. Besides, I'm fairly sure this was some sort of mechanical teleportation. I didn't sense any magical traces where Reville had appeared."

"Ah, so you can tell she's a girl too, huh? Would you believe she introduced herself as Arthur?"

"She's pretending to be a guy?"

"She must have her reasons. I say we humor her for now, and let Robin know in private later when we form up some case files on our visitors."

"I suppose I can agree to that, for now. Shouldn't you be running some sort of scan for anything left by a mechanical teleportation?"

"On it, Rae," said Cyborg, casually leaving the kitchen with his armful of goodies.

* * *

Robin and Ray ran into Beastboy and Lore at the entrance to the Tower.

"Hey, Lore, this is Robin, our team leader," introduced Beastboy excitedly to the white-haired boy, then turning to the boy in the yellow cape with a big smile. "And I'm Beastboy. Who're you?"

"Lord… Sorry, Ray. Just Ray."

"You're a Lord? Cool! Are you rich? Do you live in a castle?"

"Well, I do live in a castle, but really it's just a title for…"

Lore reached a hand out and placed it right over the wound on Ray's shoulder. The light elemental jumped in surprise, but instead of stinging, the pain lessened, then disappeared. He turned surprised yellowish eyes towards the white-haired boy.

"What are…"

Robin interrupted. "We can get to introductions upstairs, when we're all together," he said, frowning. It was clear this situation was beginning to irritate him. The sooner he got answers, the better. He'd asked Ray a few questions on the way, and the answers had been so off, he was now positive that the superhero wasn't just from another timeline, but another world entirely. And if Raven was right, which was almost guaranteed, there were six in total of these strangers from other worlds.

Lore looked at him, concern written in his big, violet eyes. Before Beastboy could stop him, he reached a hand over and rested it on Robin's forehead.

Naturally, Robin swept the hand aside. "Don't touch me," he ordered, then frowned and held his own hand to his temple in confusion. His pounding headache had lessened.

"I was only trying to help," said Lore, sounding confused.

"Yeah…" said Beastboy, looking troubled. He grabbed Lore's sleeve and pulled him along. "Touching Robin isn't a good idea. And don't even think of touching Raven. That's the creepy girl in the purple cape with eyes that kinda look like yours, only darker."

Lore frowned. "May I touch you?"

"What the…?"

"I can heal aches and pains by touching people," explained Lore, as if it was the most simple thing in the world. "I do not like people around me to be hurting."

"Well, okay I guess. If I get hurt, it's alright to heal me."

Lore turned to Robin. "I apologize. I was never told I had to ask for permission before helping someone," he said, genuinely sorry.

"It's okay, I guess. But don't do it again," replied Robin, before noticing Ray wasn't at his side.

Robin frowned and turned back. Ray was staring in awe at anything and everything he saw. The boy wonder grabbed the other boy by his arm and herded him, as well as a still chatting Beastboy and Lore, up to the elevator.

* * *

"Okay," said Robin, standing in the main room, his team on one side of the couch, their four visitors on the other. He had summoned Starfire back from her search for the last two so that she would be here for this meeting. Cyborg already had the computer scanning for traces of the teleportation, so for now it was best to get things straightened out in their heads of who exactly they were dealing with.

Looking at the four guests, none seemed in the least hostile, though all wore entirely different expressions. The dark blue haired boy was frowning impatiently. The black haired boy looked mildly entertained, of all things. Ray was trying to figure out the couch, the TV, the lamp, and apparently was drawing blanks from the confused look on his face. And the strange boy from downstairs, Lore, seemed perfectly relaxed and cheerful.

"Let's start with introductions," began Robin. "I'm Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans, our superhero team. We protect Jump City." He gestured for Cyborg, sitting on the end of the Teen Titan side, to continue.

"Cyborg. I'm a cyborg, meaning that I'm half-computer, half-man."

Three looks of confusion met his face. "Yeah, I know it's not pretty, but…"

"It is not that," began the white-haired boy.

"If I may ask a question?" added the superhero-like boy.

"Yeah?" prompted Cyborg.

"What is a computer?"

Cyborg had no idea what to answer the three questioning looks pointing his way. At least the elf he'd met earlier didn't seem confused. On the contrary, Arthur looked as surprised as he was at their ignorance.

"We'll get to that later," interrupted Robin. "For now, just know he's half made of metal and can do a lot of things normal people can't."

The three nodded, still looking confused. Robin gestured for his team to continue.

"I'm Beastboy. I can change into any animal I want," said Beastboy, turning into a cat, then a dog, then a parrot, then back to a boy. Though, granted, they were all green.

"My name is Starfire! I am a Tamaranian. My people have the power of flight, starbolts, and strength superior to that of humans. I love mustard and making new friends!"

Robin waved a hand dismissively as several questioning eyes turned to glance at him. His expression, even behind the mask, insisted on "Later".

Raven sighed when everyone looked at her. "Raven. I have the power to manipulate dark energy, as well as the ability to read people's minds and feel their emotions." She did not want to get into anything more, and her expression and voice made that quite clear.

"Now it's your turn," said Robin, gesturing to the blue-haired boy in the black suit sitting on the end.

"Sir Arthur Slate. I am an elf and the bodyguard of the crown princess of Vitania," he explained, adjusting the sword at his side. "I have none of your strange abilities, nor do I know anyone with such." The blue-haired elf gestured for Reville, now sitting next to him, to continue.

"My name is Reville. I am an empath/telepath and chief advisor to the king of Jarked. I have never seen any abilities other than my own." He nodded his dark head in greeting.

Ray went next. "Ray. My full title is Lord Sunray of Elemental Castle or the Light Knight. I control light and am the leader of a group of seven elementals, each with control of a natural element. Our powers were inherited from our parents, who we never actually met. We were raised together as orphans."

"I'm Lore," said the good-natured white-haired boy. "I'm owned by the king of Wateria, but I've been on loan to the king of Klazar for about half a year now." He didn't seem to notice the shocked looks on everyone's faces at his casual statement of being owned, or the slight paling of Reville's face. "As far as what I can do? Mostly healing. I can't bring people back from the dead, but I can handle pretty much anything else, though things can get pretty crazy if the injury is bad enough. Oh, and animals and plants seem to react to my emotions, which can cause problems. I have no idea why."

"What are you?" asked Raven bluntly.

"Human, of course," was the ready response, which sounded quite strange coming from the alarmingly NON-human appearance of the boy, with his unworldly beauty, long white hair, and expensive robe. "I have a mother, a father, six sisters, and four brothers, all perfectly normal humans. One of my baby sisters is the spitting image of me, minus the white hair of course." He chuckled and gestured to his tied-back hair.

"Okay," began Robin. "So we have an elfin bodyguard, undoubtedly skilled in fighting. An empath/telepath advisor. A superhero team's leader with power over light. And a healer who can affect plants and animals."

He frowned. Something was bugging him about this group. They were… too different. Yet all were teenagers, probably between 15 and 19. A defensive fighter, a powerful leader, an empathic advisor, and a kind healer. All that was missing was someone who could crack locks and knew the criminal mind, and another to make up for the others' deficiencies with technology.

It occurred to him that they were still missing two, and he suddenly burned with curiosity about them.

It was almost like someone was trying to piece together a team from different worlds. But why do something like that? And why send them here? When they obviously didn't even know each other, let alone how to function as a team?

A strange idea came to him, which soon turned into a notion he was almost certain about. A notion he did not particularly care for.

"I'm going to go check the communications room. Cyborg, check the computer scanner. Raven, if you could run a sweep for the last two guests of ours? I have a feeling we won't want them getting into trouble. Starfire, Beastboy, you two entertain our guests."

The four Teen Titans nodded to their leader, before starting off on their tasks.

* * *

_Author's note: Yes, Robin's is, as usual, spot on. Coming up, Robin finds the purpose of this strange team and begins a strict training schedule for them. The 'team' proves themselves even more hopeless than he'd thought._


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Notes: Revised 3.14.11. Hope you like it and please review!  
_

* * *

—Chapter Six: The Reason—

Robin supposed it should have surprised him, coming into the communications room and seeing the sign for an incoming, off-planet foreign signal, but somehow it didn't. He'd been expecting something like this. If he'd been assembling some sort of team, and they'd been sent off somewhere with no knowledge of what was going on, he would be trying to get into contact with someone trustworthy who could help them out.

Someone like Robin.

He sighed and flicked a switch. The large screen showed an enormously fat man sitting in a hoverchair in what looked like the inside of a spaceship, or perhaps just a highly technologically-advanced laboratory.

"Ah, finally! Robin of the Teen Titans, yes? I am Lord Hige, a brilliant scientific recluse with a bit of a problem…"

"Which involves six strange teenagers appearing in my city?" asked Robin coldly.

"Heh, about that, yes. There was a bit of a… problem with the teleporter. I was assembling a team to, well…"

"You invented something, didn't you." It wasn't a question. "What was it, some sort of device with the ability to destroy the universe?"

"No! I discovered something. Which, yes, does hold the capability of destroying the universe, but that's a minor side-issue. What I discovered was a great jewel unlike any other, containing a mysterious and limitless energy. I was… running routine experiments when it shattered."

_Translation, he broke it,_ thought Robin. "Go on," he said out loud.

"It broke into six shards, and the power released when the jewel shattered scattered the six shards in different directions, to different worlds. That release of power also drew the attention of… let's say less than pleasant acquaintances of mine. Ones not capable of being handled under normal circumstances."

"Why didn't you just select an experienced team to handle the situation, one already known to several worlds? The Justice League…"

"I told you so!" laughed a high-pitched voice off to the side, and a cute pink-haired lady walked over to the fat lord of a scientist, an amused look on her face.

"Darling, not now!" said Lord Hige, waving her off.

He turned back to Robin. "The shards cannot be touched directly by someone not compatible with them. There are only a few hundred compatible people in the universe. I narrowed down the selection to an appropriate team. Their ages are inconsequential. I shall send you their data momentarily."

"You don't seriously intend to send these…" Robin shook his head, thinking of Lore's innocent look, Ray's completely confused stares, the cold glares from Arthur, the uncaring nonchalance of Reville. "These… teenagers to fight those 'acquaintances' of yours."

"No, no, simply to collect the jewel shards. Though they will undoubtedly have to capable of protecting themselves."

"They are woefully inexperienced."

"You don't know the half of it," commented Darling.

Lord Hige glared at her. "They are all quite accomplished on their own worlds. I ask that you explain the situation to them and help them to work as a team. I shall contact you in a week."

Robin sighed. He'd already seen as much coming. One more thing, though.

"Is there a jewel shard in my world?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll have you know, that is the only reason I am agreeing to this."

"Thank you, Robin. The universe thanks you."

_Someone thinks a little too much of themselves,_ thought Robin. _Considering he's the source of this stupid problem._

"The universe is quite welcome, and don't forget that data."

* * *

In minutes, Robin had the data on the six, which he immediately began to study. He quickly found out just how much the four he'd already met had left out of their introductions, with the possible exception of Lore, who had been quite open.

It was quite surprising to learn quite how much power Ray held. Not just over light, but over heat and electricity, not that Ray would have any clue what electricity was, considering the way he stared in awe at light bulbs. He also seemed to have a strange ability to function as a catalyst of sorts, and his very presence was known to increase his teammates' abilities exponentially. Robin wondered in passing if that ability would work with other superheroes. As far as history and experience, his team, who had been together since infancy, mostly tamed natural disasters and the occasional evil lord or self-proclaimed genius bent on taking over their world.

Reville's history was probably the most fascinating of all of them, having been bounced from one bad situation to another pretty much his whole life. As an empath, he had been imprisoned and tortured by king after king from early childhood, had been kidnapped and forced to work for a sheik, who tortured and sold the empath for betraying him, and somehow had ended up as the advisor to a decent king, the father of a princess he'd rescued from the sheik. His empathic and telepathic powers seemed quite different from Raven's, not being emotion based, and strangely, according to the report, his powers seemed to be growing in strength as the years went by, though his control was not increasing at the same rate.

Lore's story was similar to Reville's, though not nearly as torturous. Whereas Reville had been more of a tool, Lore seemed to have been a pet. He was called 'the elf' and had been kept locked up until very recently, only being allowed outside during the king's public appearances. There were accounts of several disasters that he had unknowingly caused with his strange power over plants and animals. Disasters such as all the plants in a five mile radius withering up and dying overnight, or all the animals in a ten mile radius suddenly up and vanishing overnight, having fled in a blind panic over or through anything and everything in their way. The strange child's healing ability was also quite powerful, and undoubtedly the real reason he was such a prize.

Next was Arthur, or rather Artemis. (Cyborg and Raven had not yet told Robin of the gender-issue, so this came as something of a shock.) She really was an elf, but on her world there was no magic. To keep themselves from being exterminated, the elves had vowed to serve the royal family of Vitania. The Slate family, the elfin family Artemis was from, was required to provide a male bodyguard to each member of the royal house, and Artemis had been forced to replace her brother and bury her true self when they had quite simply run out of males when her brother died. Robin frowned. Her world seemed to be particularly dark and cruel, though sadly it seemed to be the most 'modern' out of those four.

Robin now had a starting basis for the four he'd already met. As for the two he didn't, he was beginning to get worried, considering neither of them would be counted as 'good guys' back on their own worlds.

The first was the second girl, a thief named Key. _How original_, he thought sarcastically. Robin wondered if she'd named herself, as she'd practically raised herself in the streets. She had a pet Cortu, whatever that was, which she carried around in her hat, which also contained several tools of her trade. The story behind her hat was unknown. As, apparently, was the reason Lord Hige had chosen her, since she clearly was on the wrong side of the law, being not just A thief, but THE best thief in her world. She'd stolen anything and everything, both for herself, to sell for a quick buck, and for an employer, as she apparently sold her talent to the highest bidder. Robin frowned at the knowledge that this person was loose in HIS city.

The last was a boy, an engineer/inventor/hacker, and the only one from a world more advanced then Robin's, one apparently inhabited by a conglomeration of half-animal humanoids. Matthew was an integral part of a group called the Rebel Alliance back on his world. From the report, it was nothing but a group of teenagers out for revenge against their current overlord, who had killed their parents when their world had been defeated and occupied. Matthew was famous for his destruction of cameras, theft and modification of weaponry, and ability to hack a supercomputer inside of two minutes. Apparently his aim wasn't too shabby, and he was actually known for his kicking if anyone got too close for him to use a gun. Robin could see his usefulness, but doubted his morals.

He wouldn't worry about them now, though. He'd have his hands full with just the four that his team had already found. The reports indicated that all of them had above-average intelligence, so it shouldn't be that hard to work out the kinks in their abilities and get them to work as a team.

It'd been a long time since Robin was so dead wrong.

* * *

_Author's Note: Sorry for the mini-biographies. I kept shortening and shortening them, and they still came out longer than I meant them too. I would rather have worked their stories into the plotline (kinda like I tried in those 'intro' chapters for each OC) and have the Titans gradually discover the stories piece by piece, but in all honesty I think that might make everything a little too complicated at this point. I needed Robin to learn at least the basics about all of them before he can attempt to train them, and this way was quickest and cleanest. _


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's Notes: Revised 3.14.11. Read and review! I'm totally open to any comments on how the story is going, how my OCs rate, and whether I manage to keep the Titans in-character!  
_

* * *

—Chapter Seven: Training Begins… Well, almost—

Things should have been easy. The first step was finding the level they were at. Robin had a decent idea from the reports, but they had all been written from a researcher's point of view, not a fighter's. So Robin decided he would like each one of them to demonstrate their abilities where he could observe, Cyborg could scan, and Raven could analyze. Beastboy and Starfire could keep an eye on the three not being tested.

They decided to examine Ray first, as his abilities were the closest to a normal superhero's. The teenager agreed easily enough once Robin explained that understanding their individual abilities would help him figure out why they had been sent here and what they had to do before they could go home.

* * *

Once they got past the initial problem of having to explain everything in Cyborg's lab to Ray, if only to get him to relax enough to actually be able to focus, the three had a short debate over which abilities to test first. They finally agreed to test his heat control/generation first, as that was the least complicated and easiest measured. Then they would test his light and electricity powers. Third would be testing Robin's theory that his catalyst ability with his own teammates might be useful for focusing other types of energy or superpowers. Lastly, Robin would end the testing with simple hand-to-hand combat, providing Ray wasn't totally wiped.

It really should have been quite straightforward. According to Robin's schedule, they should easily finish inside of two hours.

First was the heat control/generation. Robin showed a metal machine with a knob on the end to Ray and told him that it would measure the type and degree of heat he produced. Cyborg further explained that with this device they could not only measure how strong Ray's ability was, but where it came from. Raven was there to measure the ebb and flow of the energy in the room surrounding Ray, in case his powers ended up being supernatural, in which case Cyborg's device might end up useless.

Ray calmly set his hands on the knob of the device and closed his eyes. He had done similar tricks hundreds of times in the past, usually for mediocre things like heating water or pans for cooking.

To his shock, and everyone else's, the device melted to a molten mess in seconds.

"That was unexpected," said Robin, the first to recover. Perhaps Ray's ability was more heat-related than they'd thought?

"It's cold," observed Raven.

Cyborg checked his stats and agreed. "Room temperature dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit," he confirmed. "Looks like Ray sucked the heat out of the room and dumped it in the device, but 20 degrees doesn't balance to the 2600 degrees needed to melt steel."

"Perhaps the catalyst ability?" thought Robin out loud. Raven and Cyborg looked thoughtful.

"That… never happened before," Ray said slowly, frowning at the silver glob, quickly congealing now that he'd stopped using his ability. His eyes swirled with blue and purple, which Raven easily understood even without her abilities as some sort of mix of sadness and confusion. "Only Ash, the Fire Elemental, can do something like melt metal. I've never heated anything more than just hot enough to cook an egg."

"Wait, you've never done that before?" asked Robin, suddenly frowning. He'd figured that Ray had simply underestimated the strength of the device, as other superheroes with similar powers had done in the past.

"Electricity," said Raven, gesturing at the rows and rows of various technology in the room.

Cyborg nodded. "Not just that, the construction of our Tower as well. It holds far more heat than Ray would be used to accessing."

Robin looked over to Ray. "You need access to the element to control it, right? Or do you seem to pull it seemingly from nowhere?"

"I can use my powers pretty much anywhere, but then it is rare to be anywhere with a complete absence of light. The rest of my Elementals need direct access to their element. For that reason, our castle is made of stone, with large windows and slits to allow airflow, a clear crystal roof in our entry and Great Hall, a giant central fireplace, and filled with plants and ponds."

Raven, Cyborg, and Robin stared at him for a second, all having to adjust their mental pictures of the 'castle' Ray lived in to accommodate these strange features. Once they'd done that, they analyzed what he'd said about his abilities.

"Let's try light next, or would you rather try electricity?" Robin asked Ray, eager to test his hypotheses. He'd earlier explained that electricity was basically the same thing as lightning bolts, only it was controlled and harnessed in order to use to power their technology.

"Wait, if we…" began Raven, about to remind them that Ray had earlier melted a steel measuring device by pulling too much heat from the room.

"I've always enjoyed showing off my lightning," said Ray, and before any of the three Titans could tell him it was a bad idea, he had his hands about a foot from each other with a small lightning bolt zipping back and forth.

The light elemental suddenly frowned as his lightning grew with each bounce off his hands. It kept growing and growing. "Something's wrong!" he shouted.

The lights in the room flickered and one by one anything powered by batteries or connected to their electrical grid exploded. Raven quickly covered herself, Robin, and Cyborg in a black energy shield. Even through that, they could make out the incredibly bright flash of lightning shooting across the room. Surprisingly, there was no boom.

The light faded but didn't go away. Raven lowered her shield and they met the strange sight of Ray desperately controlling a huge ring of white-hot lightning spinning around his form. His palms were spread outwards towards the spinning circle, and his eyes were wide and glowing a bright gold that was painful to look at.

"Dissipate it!" shouted Robin, feeling the buildup of static in the room crackling along his skin.

"I… can't," Ray managed to get out, sweat pouring down his face from the effort of keeping a hold on the electricity. "It… won't. Need… somewhere to send…"

"Ground it!" instructed Cyborg. "We need a lightning rod! We're below ground level, so all we need is to get through the concrete!"

Raven looked around and spotted a 20 foot long iron spike lying against the back of the huge lab they were in. A piece of something that Cyborg had never finished. Using her power, she lifted the huge spike and stabbed it into the ground.

Ray immediately swung his arms around, the lightning following the motion of his hands, and then flung an arm out towards the rod. The lightning bolt shot off and struck with a loud crack followed by a buzzing, ultimately leaving only charred concrete and melted iron behind.

The light elemental dropped to his knees, only just catching himself. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes faded back to hazel. After a few deep breathes, he looked towards the Titans, confusion plain on his face.

"I've never had problems with lightning. What on earth happened? There was just… so much. Too much. And it…" Ray groaned and grabbed his head. "And it was weird… It acted strange."

"I may have something," began Cyborg, analyzing the data on his personal computing system built into his arm. (Everything else in the laboratory had been destroyed.) "Lightening itself is a great electrical discharge, capable of reaching nearly 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit and speeds of 144,000 miles per hour. Considering that the temperature of the sun at its surface is approximately 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit, the speed of light being 186,202 miles per second, and the fact that the vast majority of light sources are thermal…" he mumbled quickly to himself. "So his ability as a catalyst is a function of the…"

"Ray takes in the energies around him, increases their power and speed, then releases them in a form he can control," said Raven simply, ignoring the glare from Cyborg at the unscientific statement she'd just made. Nonetheless, it was quite true. "He probably just had a hard time recognizing the energy since it was… polluted, you could say, by our technology."

The poor light knight was so obviously lost, and his weak body and pounding headache weren't helping.

There was a knock on the miraculously still standing door and Lore poked his head in. He looked around the room in curiosity, apparently not seeing anything weird about the burn marks and pieces of metal debris everywhere.

"Ah! It was Ray," said the healer, his purple eyes falling on the elemental. Lore turned his head towards Robin. "May I come in?"

Robin nodded.

"Thank you." Lore entered and approached Ray, kneeling in front of him, not caring in the least of the ash and grease getting on his expensive robe.

"May I help you?" he asked Ray, politely. Behind Lore, Beastboy nodded proudly to himself, happy that Lore had learned to ask first.

Robin frowned, realizing that asking and waiting for permission before healing someone could result in a delay that could compromise someone's life. Maybe he should've been a little easier on the guy earlier.

Ray gave him a strange look. "Uh, yeah?"

Lore nodded and took Ray's hands in his, raising them to his bowed forehead, much like a slave of ancient days would greet a beloved master.

Raven watched with interest, quite curious about how this healing actually occurred. Was it more manipulation of energies, or perhaps selective fast-forwarding or rewinding of individual time? Could he be one who transfers his own health to the one he was aiding, or maybe…

To her shock, she sensed nothing. Nothing but the ease of pain in Ray's head and the lightening of his body as the stress and weakness lifted.

And Beastboy's consciousness going fuzzy. She turned around in surprise, and saw Beastboy leaning against the doorway he'd been standing next to, purring. While still in human form. His eyes were hazy and staring off into nothingness.

"Thank you," said Ray, taking his hands from Lore's and smiling.

The white-haired teenager looked up at him, surprised and excited about getting thanked. It didn't really happen back home. "You're welcome!"

"Beastboy?" asked Raven, drawing everyone's attention to the shapeshifter, who, in all honesty, looked half a step away from a kitten high on catnip.

Beastboy jolted to attention, noticed everyone staring at him, then glared at Lore.

"Dude, you did it again!"

"I am very sorry," apologized Lore, looking as crestfallen as Starfire when she created a Tamaranian dish that made everyone sick.

Beastboy instantly felt guilty. "Nah, it's okay. I mean, it doesn't hurt or anything…"

"It is not okay," said Raven. "Taking control of another is _never_ okay."

Lore was staring at the ground, and under her words he seemed to shrink.

Beastboy glared at Raven and growled. How dare she hurt Lore! Then he froze, catching himself again, and glanced back at Lore, completely confused at this instinctive drive to protect the strange teenager he'd just met a few hours ago.

"What are you doing to Beastboy?" demanded Raven, it coming out harsher than she meant it to, mainly because of her confusion over what and how the boy was doing ANYTHING. The white-haired boy's ability drew a complete blank on her radar. She could sense his mind and emotions, sure, but he felt like a completely normal human.

Right now, it was Beastboy that felt like the strange one, his powers spiking. Raven swore she even felt Beastboy's inner Beast nearly rise out a couple times.

Lore twisted his hands in his robe. "I… I never affected a person before. I apologize."

"Calm yourself!" Raven ordered, growing alarmed by the spike in Lore's emotions, a combination of fear of herself and pain from the accusations. Not that she was afraid or guilty about hurting Lore, but that there was an echoing spike in anger and protective instinct from Beastboy across the room.

Beastboy caught himself again and clenched his hands, now claws, into his fists.

"Raven, you need to stop," ordered Robin, sensing something dangerous was going on between the three, and that Raven was making things worse.

Cyborg laid a gentle hand on Lore's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out," he said comfortingly. The boy was actually trembling beneath his hand.

"Just give me a second," whispered Lore, his voice tight, squeezing his eyes shut.

He took a deep breath, and Raven frowned as, instead of controlling his emotions or even blocking them out, he seemed to completely eliminate them and replace them with something else entirely. In all honesty, to her mind it was as if someone highly intelligent had just turned off their own brain and let an idiot take over.

When Lore again looked back up, he again had that familiar easygoing smile on his face. Which Raven now suspected was completely artificial.

"Sorry about that," he said in a cheerful voice. "Weird stuff happens around me all the time, even when I'm not healing anyone."

Raven reached her sense over to Beastboy, but her green friend was perfectly normal now.

Robin glanced at Cyborg, who looked up from where he had been studying his readings of Lore, Beastboy, and the room. He shrugged. He also hadn't come up with anything to explain Lore's ability or connection to Beastboy.

Raven suddenly got it, and her eyes darted over to Robin and Cyborg. There was only one thing she'd never studied in depth, mainly because it had always, she'd thought, showed itself through the use of other supernatural abilities she could read just fine. Also, in one like Lore, it _should have_ been physically visible, glaringly obvious, and reeking of magic.

Lore smiled innocently at her when he noticed her stare. All of her powers and senses told her he was a perfectly normal human, if a bit of a dipstick. Her intellect and logic told her otherwise.

It was the only plausible answer.

"Aura," she said simply. "His aura must be distinctly different from a normal person's. I'll have to do research on the subject."

* * *

_I have a bad feeling that this one might need even more help then Reville_, thought Raven to herself, as she swept out of the room. _What he just did to his own emotions was simply… wrong. I know how hard it is to block out your emotions, your true self. I can't imagine wiping the slate clean and rewriting my own personality. There has to be a better way for him to control his aura. He needs to learn to control or block his emotions, not shoot them dead and replace them with androids. _

* * *

_Author's Note: Yeah, I bet you all noticed another part I 'skipped'. Actually, Robin left out the explanation to the OC team on purpose. I'll explain in a later chapter. I was meaning to go through my OCs one by one for Robin's training, but then Lore had to slip in there and mess all my plans up and throw Raven for a loop… Oh, and the lab is just a random sub-level room in the Tower. Anyway, next chapter, the testing continues and some training begins, probably with fairly destructive and/or unpredictable results. _


	8. Chapter 8

—Chapter Eight: Clothes for Lore, Plans for Ray, and Questions for Artemis—

"Aura," Raven said simply. "His aura must be distinctly different from a normal person's. I'll have to do research on the subject." Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and left the room, the frown on her face showing she was already puzzling over the mystery that was Lore.

Lore stood there, slightly surprised, and clearly with no idea what an aura was, why it was important, or what it had to do with him. Why the purple-caped girl had seemed so annoyed was beyond him, and he'd already shoved the memory of her being angry at him straight out of his mind, but still… there was something. Perhaps she was in pain? She must hide it very well, as he didn't sense anything from her. That would explain why he bothered her. She must not want to be healed, like Robin.

"Lore?" asked Beastboy, waving a hand to get the white-haired boy's attention.

Lore glanced up and noticed his new friend right in front of him.

"Don't mind Raven. She can get a bit overprotective sometimes. It just means she loves her friends."

The boy frowned in confusion. "Overprotective? How so?"

Beastboy's green eyes shot up to stare at Lore's. Had the boy completely forgotten something that had happened all of a minute ago? How Raven's blunt comments had practically had him in tears?

That worried him. He liked Lore. The guy was really nice, and pleasant to be around – well, when he wasn't accidentally messing with Beastboy's animal instincts, but it wasn't like he did that on purpose.

"I meant the whole 'controlling other people is evil' thing with Raven," explained Beastboy, speaking a little slower.

"Ah, that," said Lore casually. "I'd rather not think about it, if that's alright."

Beastboy let out a sigh of relief. Okay, so Lore didn't have some sort of short-term memory loss. That was good. He happened to glance down at Lore's outfit. The robe that seemed to be made of purest white silk and the most elegant of embroidery and brocade was now stained beyond repair from the boy kneeling on the grease and ash stained ground.

"Dude! You're filthy!" he exclaimed.

Lore glanced down. "Oh, it's not that bad," he said, not sounding at all worried.

"But it must have cost a fortune!" Beastboy said. "It just _looks_ expensive!"

"I hate this thing anyway. And it's not like they don't have a couple hundred more where it came from."

The word 'hate' flowing so easily out of such an easygoing person's mouth even interrupted Robin and Cyborg where they had been discussing Ray's abilities and what to do next. What to do that wouldn't involve the possible destruction of another room.

"Hate?" asked Ray, as surprised as everyone else.

"Yes," said Lore, his dislike showing on his face as he looked down at the robe. "At least they let up on the makeup. Do you have any idea how humiliating that is?"

None of the guys there could answer him, but the horror at the idea of being forced to wear makeup showed on all their faces.

The silence quickly becoming embarrassing, especially for Lore, who realized he had let slip a little more than he was comfortable with others knowing. Especially other guys. He turned slightly pink and covered his face with a hand.

"Would you like another outfit?" Cyborg suddenly asked, breaking the silence. "A normal one? We could get one for you."

Lore looked up at him in surprise. "Really?" he asked, surprise clear in his voice. "Yes!"

Cyborg and Beastboy looked to Robin, who frowned for a minute, then nodded. "That would be fine. Beastboy can take Lore to get a normal outfit, and ask the others if they would like something more casual as well. Ray?"

"I'm good. I'd feel strange in anything else."

"Alright! Shopping trip!" cheered Beastboy, grabbing Lore by the sleeve and hauling him out of the room. "Star will come with us!" he was saying excitedly. "Would you prefer the mall or the downtown outlets? Wait, you wouldn't know. This is gonna be so much fun!"

* * *

Robin turned to Ray after the diversions known as Lore and Beastboy had left the room.

"We'll let Beastboy take care of Lore for the time being, and Star should still be with the others." The boy wonder checked the clock and frowned at it. "I still want to run a few more tests before I figure out what to do with you, Ray, but it looks like Cyborg will need a bit more time before we tackle measuring your powers again. Why don't we spar a little?"

"Actually," began Cyborg, "as the one in charge of all our systems, Robin, I'd like to override you in this one instance."

Robin looked over to Cyborg in shock.

"Let me make this clear," the bionic teen began, his stance and voice making it clear he would not be backing down. "I do not want that walking electric generator anywhere near me or my systems until he figures out how to handle our processed electricity. Certainly not fighting, because I'll bet anything he uses his powers when he fights."

Ray shrugged when Robin glanced at him. "Yes, I do."

"Can't you just not use your power?"

Ray looked doubtful, and more than a little shamed. "It's… not something I consciously turn on and off. I don't even think about it." He licked his lips. "Well, I'm sure the other elementals could keep themselves from using their element, except maybe Wisp, but the only time I've ever felt… Well, light's always there, so I guess I always have some sort of… connection? to it." He was clearly having a difficult time explaining himself.

"I figured as much," said Cyborg. "He needs serious training, Robin. And until he gets that, he's a walking hazard in our world." He gestured around the destroyed room to make his point clear.

Robin thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "What do you suggest, Cyborg?"

"I'll take him under my wing for a bit. Show him the mechanics of how our technology works, how we produce and direct electricity. Hopefully get him to recognize and control current and direction, instead of just randomly pulling anything and everything into himself."

It was a very good idea, Robin had to admit. "Sounds good," he said. "The sooner the better."

Ray looked uneasy, but Cyborg grabbed his shoulder and directed him out of the room, towards doubtless another lab. The elemental rubbed his hands together nervously, not noticing the blue sparks of static that the movement created.

Cyborg did, and groaned. He had his work cut out for him. At this rate, he'd have to be careful for his own safety, not just for the Tower's.

* * *

Robin consulted his inner chart of what he needed to find out about and discuss with each of these four 'heroes' that Hige guy had sent him.

Ray's fighting capabilities were still a mystery, but Cyborg had made a valid comment that it was more important to get the elemental's powers under control before they did any more.

He needed Raven to do anything with Reville, but she was busy doing research on Lore's powers. Lore himself was probably being dragged to a clothing store by Starfire and Beastboy.

Robin suddenly frowned. Then who was watching Artemis and Reville?

He had been walking through the Tower and just entered the main room, finding the answer to half his question.

Reville was sitting on the couch, leaning back, his eyes closed. He appeared asleep, but his eyes opened bright and observant when Robin entered the room.

"You Titans are fascinating," he said, smiling. It was quite a different look from what he'd shown before. "I do rather think I'll enjoy your company." He leaned back, closing his eyes, his whole body relaxing. "It seems too good to be true that anyone could be so genuine, but I doubt you could keep up such a convincing charade this long."

"Where's Artemis?"

"Artemis?"

"Arthur."

Reville frowned, then smiled. His whole face lit up, those big black eyes sparkling. "Oh, I get it! No wonder _he_ felt so off at times. Anyway, Arthur's in the kitchen."

"The kitchen?"

The empath shrugged. "Starfire gave him permission."

That made Robin seriously worried. Starfire was far too trusting, and she apparently already classified their guests as 'friends'. He quickly rushed to the kitchen, and was greeted by a strange, yet familiar, sight. One he hadn't seen since he'd left Gotham City and Wayne Manor.

Artemis had a white apron on over her stiff black suit and was calmly making dinner with a precision and grace that would even have Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler, impressed. Or at least satisfied.

She could've been a fantastic butler if she wasn't a bodyguard.

Robin frowned and took a seat, watching her. She really did look like a girl, other than the clothes. Once he knew, it was obvious. Even knowing she was an elf, she was far too pretty. Even in the suit, which his keen eyes now noticed as custom tailored to hang straight rather than outline form, and even with her shoulder-length dark blue hair slicked down and tied back in a low ponytail, she gave off a decidedly feminine vibe, despite her flawless acting.

If she smiled, she would give Starfire a run for her money.

With that surprising thought, considering Robin earnestly believed Starfire to be the most beautiful girl in the universe, Robin quickly cleared his throat and got down to business. He'd have to cross this bridge sometime.

"I know, Artemis."

CLANG!

She'd dropped an enormous pot. Thankfully she had not yet filled it with anything.

The seconds ticked by, and she didn't move a fraction, not even to pick up the pot.

"Artemis?"

She took a deep, shuddery breath. Her back straightened, her hands clenched and unclenched, then she turned around. Her face showed an alarming contradiction of emotions. She was pale and sweating in shear terror, yet her eyes were harsh and threatening.

"Do NOT call me that. My name is Arthur."

"I know why you were sent here. Along with that information, I learned who you are."

"I do not care. You are not to call me THAT name. I am Arthur."

Robin frowned. "I am sure at least half of my team has already figured it out. Besides, there is no reason for you to hide who you are while you're here."

"So says the boy in a mask," Artemis said defensively, finally reaching down and retrieving the pot.

"We have to always be ready to fight crime in the city. It is rare to find anyone in my team not in uniform. Besides, my identity could bring harm to those I love. Your identity, in this world, is worth nothing and can hurt no one."

"I am Arthur," she said, though now it sounded like she was desperately trying to convince herself. She busied herself with filling the pot with water and setting it on to boil. "I am Arthur," she repeated. "Artemis is dead. She can't come back." Her voice almost broke.

She turned back to Robin, her eyes fierce. "How much do you know?"

"That your race is enslaved, and that if your family doesn't provide a male bodyguard to the royal family you will all be slaughtered. That the king already knows you're female, but is keeping it from _you_ so that if it ever gets out, he can have you executed and claim ignorance."

Her eyes widened. "He _knows_?" Her hands trembled and she abruptly pulled up a seat across from Robin and collapsed into the chair. "What is the _point_ of it all, then?"

Robin shrugged. "Politics." He frowned at her. "You don't have to go back, you know. They can't punish you or your family if you completely disappear. The logical conclusion would be that you were killed."

She closed her eyes for a second and rested her head in her hands, then looked up. "She's a good girl."

"Who? The princess?"

"Yes. Princess Isalla is a wonderful person, and a true friend of mine. She found out who I am when I slipped up, and she's been helping to protect me and my family since. I can't leave her."

Anyone else would argue, but Robin sighed, then nodded. He would never tell someone not to fulfill what they considered their duty, especially if it was to a friend. "I understand. So you can't lose 'Arthur' and return to 'Artemis'."

"I don't think I would be able to go back," she said, meeting Robin's eyes as best she could with his mask on. "It was hard enough the first time. I haven't even heard my mother call me… _that_ since Arthur died." Her voice was shaking slightly. "Please don't say it again."

Robin stood and patted her shoulder as he passed her on the way out.

"Then we'll call you Arthur, and you can continue to be a guy. But we will know. I will explain the situation to everyone, and you don't need to be so on guard around us."

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Oh, and one more thing?" asked Robin, turning around before leaving the kitchen.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to spar with me? When you're done preparing dinner, of course."

She smirked. "You sure about that? I'm quite good."

Robin smirked back. "So am I, so this will be fun."

Artemis laughed, and Robin found himself thinking that he had been right. She was nearly as beautiful as Starfire.

* * *

Cyborg, Ray, Beastboy, Lore, Starfire, and Reville were all in the main room as Robin left the kitchen.

"You know," began Cyborg uneasily. "Maybe you should keep those sorts of conversations to rooms with doors?"

"And without pans that, should they fall, alert everyone in the building?" added Beastboy.

Robin had to check the smirk that almost came to his lips. Well, this made explaining easier.

"Is everyone fine with this? Arthur is Arthur, who just happens to be female."

Everyone nodded, and from the tears in Starfire and Lore's eyes, it was clear they'd heard everything. Reville's eyes were filled with concern, which was only to be expected of an empath after hearing, and no doubt feeling, such an emotionally charged conversation. Cyborg, Ray, and Beastboy looked quite uncomfortable, but none were the type to deliberately hurt a girl. Robin would let Raven know himself.

"Umm, I was just coming to let you know Ray and I would be in the garage," said Cyborg. "I've got a couple old generators in there."

"Just letting you know we would be at _Nancy's_ before we run off," said Beastboy, gesturing to himself, Starfire, and Lore.

* * *

_Author's notes: Again, the characters are running away with the story! This time it was Artemis, with her way too heavy baggage. Anyway, next chapter I WILL finally get to some training. Raven researches auras, Cyborg tries to keep Ray from blowing up the Tower, and Artemis and Robin spar. Don't worry, I know better than to make Robin lose to an OC._

_Oh, and don't worry about Robin/Artemis. I know it comes across a bit in this chapter, but I am a firm supporter of Robin/Starfire! Artemis needs someone special, but that someone won't be Robin. (Feel free to send ideas/opinions. It's still in the air if I'll couple her with someone.) Regardless, this will NOT be turning into a romance fic, as I don't even know how to write those._

_Hope you enjoyed, and all reviews welcomed and taken seriously! I am completely open to ideas, questions, comments, and complaints._


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's Notes: Couple of things to clear up. Yes, I plan to make this story into a series, with the OCs being forced into one world after another, so they could end up next in anything from Artemis Fowl's world to Monk's. Two, I plan to get back (finally, poor things) to Key, Matt, and Slade in the next chapter. Sorry for the delay, but I plan to give you plenty, plenty of chapters to make up for it! Special thanks to my reviews, and enjoy the next chapter!_

* * *

—Chapter Nine A: The Mystery and Wonder that is Lore—

_I have to find out why he can't control his aura, and to do that I need to understand it. My knowledge on auras is woefully inadequate._

Raven was in her room, prowling through book after book, searching for any mention of auras, trying to find something that would help her understand Lore's unusual abilities.

_So very strange. Since when is an aura invisible? And since when does it have such a wide, yet specific range? It goes against everything I thought I knew about auras, but an aura is the only thing that makes sense…_

Very unfortunately, Lore's powers also seemed to go against everything the vast majority of these authors knew as well.

_Auras never control their owner, _she read._ Auras sleep until they are awoken, and even then only become useful through decades of extremely harsh training._ Training that made her own seem mild in comparison.

Yet, Lore was far too young to have been through decades of training, and he very clearly had no control over his aura. He had implied it was something he was born with, that had always been part of him.

Raven frowned.

_His appearance is certainly strange, with that white hair… Especially since he as good as said no one else in his family had that color. And he was very clear that he was, by blood, a normal human. Or at least thought he was. Perhaps the hair is some sort of sign of a special type of aura… _

She buried herself in another book.

_Healing, animal control, plant control, white-hair, conspicuous features… They all have to be tied together somehow. But how? And how is it that the healing works on humans, but his control only extends over animals and plants? Unless he has not truly tapped his full potential? Or maybe it truly isn't control, but just some sort of vague suggestion? Perhaps humans, having a stronger sense of self, simply have too much control over their own brains to be bowled over by Lore's emotions? That would explain Beastboy. He's always been insanely susceptible to any sort of psychic suggestion. But Lore had said it had NEVER affected a human before, which implies that it should be Beastboy's animal instincts being affected, which matches what I saw. He wasn't acting at all like a mirror of Lore's emotional state… Perhaps because it's linked so strongly to his emotions…_

Robin knocked on the door.

"Raven?"

"Yes?" she replied, not looking up from the book and certainly not bothering to get up, walk over, and open the door.

"I assume you already know Arthur is a girl?"

"Yes."

"Her name is Artemis, but she's very sensitive about the whole thing, so I've agreed that we'll call her Arthur and treat her the same as one of the guys."

"Alright."

"Any breakthroughs in your research?"

"…"

"You'll figure it out, Raven. You're the only one who can."

* * *

Nancy, owner and designer for the boutique _Nancy's_, was one of the many clothing designers that provided custom-made and tailored clothing free of charge to the Teen Titans, for four simple reasons. One, they had once saved her life. Two, they had twice saved her shop. Three, they were so incredibly unique it was a fantastic challenge. Four, it was great publicity when they wore her designs.

And so it was that her boutique that was to be their first, and last, stop for Lore's new clothes.

Nancy, a freakishly tall woman in her forties with dyed pink hair in a modern, slightly punkish style, saw them and quickly, and rather rudely, brushed past the rest of her customers to issue her customary greetings.

"Beastboy! I have the cutest new hat for you to try, and a great new design for sneakers! And Starfire! Oh, dearie, you have GOT to see this new formal gown I have in the back!" she gushed, grabbing the little green shapeshifter in a suffocating hug and smiling hugely at the model-worthy Tamaranian.

"Yo, Nance!" Beastboy managed to say, freeing himself from her arms. "Maybe some other time. We've got a friend with a bit of a problem."

"Yes! Friend Lore is in need of new clothing!" declared Starfire, pulling forward a wide-eyed Lore.

Nancy's mouth dropped open and her eyes swept over the incredibly beautiful, almost alien, appearance of Lore. She leaped forward and grabbed him, examining his features at a distance way too close for comfort.

"My god my god my GOD!" the designer repeated, her eyes growing wider and wider. "Look at the angle of these cheekbones! The slant of these big, lavender eyes! This perfect nose! Those pretty ears! Wide, smooth lips! Long, elegant neck!" Without asking, she tore his hair tie out and watched with a completely fanatical look as his perfectly straight and freakishly smooth snow-white hair fell across his shoulders and down his back, fanning out as it fell all the way to his waist. "That HAIR!" she squealed, running her hands through it.

Lore was seriously alarmed, and looked towards Starfire and Beastboy for help. Beastboy shook off the now-familiar 'must help Lore!' instinct and just smiled to let the strange boy know everything was fine. Starfire watched with nearly as much excitement as Nancy herself, eager to see what Nancy would come up with.

Nancy's eyes eagerly swept downwards, frowning at the stained robe. "My lord! Who put you in something that makes you look like a child playing dress up? A beauty like you deserves to walk runways, not cosplay at fanclubs! COME!"

And Nancy dragged Lore off to the fitting rooms in the back, practically shoved him onto the platform she used for measuring, ripped off the robe (thank goodness he was wearing some sort of thin undergarments beneath it), whipped out her tape, and got to work, talking rapidly all the while, not giving Lore any chance to interrupt.

"No WAY you're human, baby. Not with looks like that, NO way! You'll consider being my spokesman, right? Of course you will, especially after the absolutely GORGEOUS outfit I have in mind for you! Forget outfit, I'll give you a whole stinking wardrobe! Oh my GOD! I didn't know anyone could have measurements this perfect! You must be an elf, right? Oh, Lord! A real, live elf! 'Cause I've seen those Martians and the Lunarians, and trust me dearie, none look a THING like you! There's something totally not-human, but still not that whole 'alien' vibe those people from other planets got, ya get me?"

Nancy finished her measuring and whipped out a sketchpad. Her hands a blur as she scribbled and sketched faster than the eye could follow. "We need something BEAUTIFUL! Something WONDERFUL! Something that screams BEAUTY COMING THROUGH!"

"I actually…" began Lore, looking uncomfortable.

"Nonsense!" declared Nancy, already knowing what he was going to say from his mild mannerisms. "Someone as beautiful as you absolutely MUST be showed off! It would be a SIN to hide you away! Now you absolutely MUST let me put makeup on you!"

Lore actually bolted. There was a loud flapping and rustling sound as the hundreds of birds in nearby trees suddenly took off.

Starfire and Beastboy caught him before he even got out of the fitting rooms, each grabbing an arm and hauling him back to the platform and the rather extreme designer.

"Please, no! She's insane!" whimpered Lore pitifully.

"Miss Nancy makes the most glorious clothing," explained Starfire. "You must be patient with her exuberant conduct, friend Lore."

"Oh, don't be a baby!" exclaimed Nancy. "Just a touch of eye-liner and there'll be lines of people begging you to sign contracts with their companies! You could be a star! An idol! But don't forget that I called first dibs."

"No," said Lore, shaking his head rapidly and pulling away from her grabby hands.

"Well, fine then. Hold this."

Surprised she had given up so quickly, or at least seemed to, Lore had no idea how to react when Nancy dumped a shirt in his arms. Followed by another shirt, and another, then a jacket, then three pairs of pants, then four pairs of slacks, two more shirts… He soon was practically buried under a mountain of clothes.

"I'll just need you to try these on, tailor a couple of them to the right specifics, and BANG! Instant hottie! You'll have girls AND boys drooling over you!"

"I don't want BOYS drooling over me!" exclaimed Lore in genuine alarm. Actually, he didn't want ANYONE drooling over him, but the idea of guys being attracted to him completely threw all other thoughts from his mind. What kind of world was this? Starfire had to actually grab Beastboy's arm for a second to keep him from mauling Nancy at Lore's panic. They would later notice, as they left the store, that the trees nearest the store had nearly doubled in size.

"Well, fine, but you'll have a tough time as my model with that kind of attitude! And I'm not sacrificing your looks just for your own convenience!"

Regardless of the fact that she made absolutely no sense, she dragged him into a room to force him to try on the various pieces of clothing.

Beastboy and Starfire listened to Nancy's nonstop babbling with interest as she made Lore try on outfit after outfit, mixing and matching, before dragging him out in some sort of loose, white outfit with a distinctive oriental feel to it. She again transformed into a blur, moving so fast, Beastboy and Starfire were beginning to wonder if she had some sort of connection to the Flash.

Sure enough, when she was done, Beastboy had to nudge Starfire to stop her from drooling. He'd had to blink several times himself to see if the sight in front of him was real.

Lore in a robe had been surreal and somewhat dreamlike. Lore in a designer outfit custom tailored just for him by someone bound and determined to highlight his every perfect feature was simply… whoa.

The outfit itself was incredible, and something any model, actress, singer, or heiress would kill for. It had started as some sort of white Chinese casual outfit, with a high collar and calf-length leggings, and Nancy had stitched in vivid red trim around the edges, light purple ribbon to highlight the trim measurements of his waist, arms, and legs, and blue embroidery along the sleeves and the ends of the leggings. Somehow, Nancy had even procured matching slippers, managed to pin back a section of Lore's incredible hair, and put black eyeliner around his large, purple eyes, making them appear twice their size. (Lore hadn't noticed the eyeliner yet, having quite lost track of what was going on a while ago.)

Lore apparently hadn't quite realized she was finally finished. He just stood there.

Nancy admired her work, and her beautiful new model, for all of thirty seconds, before lifting two fingers to her lips and blasting out the loudest whistle anyone in the store, as well as up and down the street outside, had ever heard.

"EVERYONE! ADMIRE MY GENIUS!" she declared, grabbing Lore by the wrist and yanking him to the middle of the store, where Lore suddenly found himself being stared at by dozens of fashionable young women and several trendy young men.

After all of a ten second dead silence, the questions started, which Nancy happily fielded.

"Yes, yes. This is my new model, Lore. Isn't he absolutely gorgeous? Yes, I do believe he's some sort of elf. The Teen Titans brought him to me! No, you can't have him! He's mine! Yes, indeed it shall be an exclusive contract! No stealing! Photographs? Why not?"

Beastboy and Starfire met alarmed glances and quickly shoved through the crowd to rescue Lore, and in the end had to actually use their powers in order to snatch the poor teenager from Nancy's grasp and fly him back to the Tower.

Robin would not be happy with the "BEASTBOY AND STARFIRE KIDNAP NEW SUPERMODEL!" headline in all the newspapers the next day. Nor the hundreds of photographs of Lore suddenly splashed all over magazine covers.

Just as Lore wouldn't be happy hours later, when he finally caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. All the plants on the island where the Teen Titans' Tower was tripled in size that night, and Beastboy shredded his bed and three chairs before coming to his senses.

* * *

—Chapter Nine B: How NOT to blow up Titans Tower—

Cyborg had just spent the better part of two hours explaining to Ray just what exactly electricity was, how it was directed, what it could be measured in, and how it was manufactured, since they obviously did not harvest lightning or static, as seemed to be the extent of Ray's experience.

If only Ray actually _generated_ his own electricity like most electricity-powered meta-humans, instead of absorbing it from his surroundings. This would be SO much easier if that were the case. Then Ray would probably be an expert already and not need this special training session. Certainly not in such depth.

He could only cross his fingers and hope that he wouldn't have to give similar lectures on the fundamentals of heat and light.

Ray had already accidentally blown up two generators and melted three, but it finally looked like they were getting somewhere. The light elemental's eyes were no longer glazed in incomprehension, for one. For another, there was a trace of understanding, of confidence even, as he stretched his hands out over yet another generator, and it activated and began humming with power.

Cyborg honestly expected it to start to overheat and melt like the last two, but to his surprise, a smile blossomed on Ray's face. The generator continued to hum efficiently along.

Ray slowly pulled one hand away from the generator, and a small ball of electricity appeared in it.

Cyborg readied himself to leap for cover.

Ray closed his glowing eyes. The generator continued to hum, and a visual trail of electricity jumped from it to Ray's hand, being absorbed into his very skin. The glowing orb in his other hand grew brighter.

The light elemental smirked and pulled his hand away from the generator, which slowly whirred to a stop. Then he clenched the hand holding the ball of lightning into a fist and it disappeared into thin air. Well, not entirely. Cyborg detected the level of static charge in the air rise around Ray's person, but that was only to be expected.

"Well done," he commended.

Ray's smile was absolutely enormous. "That felt… incredible! The way this electricity of yours flows… it's entirely different. So much more… mild. Cheerful. Before, I was using too much strength and too little focus, but I think I get it now!"

"Let's test that," said Cyborg, pulling out an old PC he'd salvaged for parts. It was opened up to reveal the delicate hardware, and everything was there. "Get this baby to hum like the generator."

Well, let's just say Ray still had a ways to go before he could handle something quite so fragile.

"Maybe we should try something like different wattages of light bulbs…" sighed Cyborg, frowning over the melted glop on the table. He mentally prepared himself to go through boxes upon boxes of light bulbs, and sincerely hoped they would have enough in storage.

He congratulated himself for thinking to put his T-Car, his precious baby, well out of Ray's reach in a separate garage that normally was just used for spare parts and equipment.

Ray flushed red in embarrassment, scolding himself mentally and sure that any other elemental in his team would have mastered something like this the first time they'd tried it.

* * *

—Chapter Nine C: Robin versus Artemis—

Artemis reached the point in her cooking where everything could be left alone for the next couple hours until dinner. The soup was down to a simmer, the cake was frosted and covered, the two chickens were in the oven, and the four different salads were in the fridge. The freshly baked bread had just finished and she set it aside in a basket, covering it with a clean cloth to keep the loaves warm and moist.

Reville had actually helped her out for the last half hour. He didn't say much, but somehow his presence was comforting. He didn't really have any skill at cooking, but he set up the dining room table without complaint, and exactly to her specifications.

The bodyguard gave everything one last look over, then nodded to herself. Good. Satisfactory.

"Are you really going to fight with Robin?" asked Reville, watching her with concern in his large, black eyes.

"Of course."

"What if you get hurt?"

She frowned at the empath, but he seemed serious. "We are merely sparring. Testing our skills against each other. There is no need to be concerned."

Reville frowned. "I seem to have a different idea of what sparring is. Where I come from, any fight is to the death. Fighters are all assassins."

Artemis frowned. "That is very different from my world, and I am sure from this world as well. Does this mean you have killed? Despite your limp, you move with skill."

The empath blinked in surprise. She had noticed? "No, I never killed anyone. As an empath, I was excused from combat. Sensing another's pain renders me useless."

"Raven manages just fine," said Robin casually, entering the kitchen and catching the end part of the conversation. "Perhaps she can help you with that."

Reville turned sharp eyes towards the boy wonder. "You make it sound as if my learning to fight is important."

Robin folded his arms and appraised the black-haired teen in front of him.

"It is. I will explain later."

Reville's gaze turned into a harsh glare, then he got to his feet. "I do not wish to fight. Ever."

"Even if your life is on the line?"

"Yes."

"What if it's another's life on the line?"

Reville's black eyes narrowed. "And why would you ask something like that?"

Robin frowned. The empath was dodging the question. Though, at least that meant that he would consider fighting for someone else, if not for himself. But Reville's gaze showed determination on this point. Robin mentally shrugged and turned to Artemis.

"Are you ready to spar, Arthur?"

"That would be fine," was her reply, taking off the apron and folding it. She neatly laid it in a drawer, then turned to follow Robin.

"Would you like to watch, Reville?"

"Those sorts of things quite lose their charm when you feel every blow on both sides," said Reville, waving a hand dismissively. "Have fun hurting each other."

* * *

The indoor gym was impressive, as really should have been expected. In the middle of the many weights, treadmills, bikes, and various exercise equipment, there was a wide raised platform for sparring. Artemis stepped up on it, Robin across from her.

She drew her sword. "You mean to test me, yes? Sword, or hand-to-hand?"

"Let's try both. Swords until one of us is disarmed, then hand-to-hand."

"You use a sword?"

"Occasionally. I prefer my bo-staff."

"Then by all means, please use it. I would take your not using your best weapon as an insult."

"If you insist," smirked Robin, pulling out his bo-staff and snapping the pieces together until it was at full length. He readied himself, and opposite him Artemis did likewise.

Her position was good. Skillful and alert. No obvious holes in her defense.

Robin charged. Crack! Crack! Swoosh! Sword met staff skillfully and the dance began.

It continued for some time, Artemis taking far more hits than Robin, when Robin noticed something strange.

She did not move her position at all. She did not lose any ground, which was commendable, but neither did she gain any. Nor did it seem possible for her to be disarmed, as she held on no matter what type of hit she took.

_Of course,_ he realized. _A bodyguard will have someone behind them. They cannot move while they fight, or they risk endangering the one they're protecting. Nor can they risk losing their weapon, because, since they can't move, they can't retrieve their weapon or easily draw another. I wonder if she even knows what she's doing._

Since he couldn't disarm her, and had already judged her sword skills as satisfactory, he tripped her and pinned her to the ground with his staff.

"Do you know you don't move at all when you fight?"

"What are…" she paused and frowned. "You're right. I never thought of that. You constantly shifted position and stance."

"I'll teach you to reposition yourself. There is no reason for your style of fighting in a team battle. Otherwise, I must say I am impressed." He removed the staff and held out a hand to help her up.

"Well, I'm not," she practically growled, shoving his hand aside and pushing herself up. "That was a pathetic performance on my part. I couldn't get any good blows in, and I took far too many. My father would be most displeased."

"If you had not guarded your position so carefully, you would have easily dodged at least half the blows you received. Now, part two?"

She sheathed her sword and got into position. Robin was surprised to see her hands fisted, having expected some sort of martial arts stance. Again, not a hole in her defenses.

The fight began again. Artemis was no acrobat like Robin. There was no flipping or twisting or leaping. What she did was punch, and she was incredibly strong. Robin estimated her blows to have the weight of Cyborg's, which was very impressive for someone with no superpowers. After she left some dents in the platform where he'd dodged, he decided it was more from being an elf than from any type of training. That amount of raw power was inhuman.

And apparently Artemis had quite the temper as well. She was quickly getting irritated at herself for not being able to catch Robin. Her punches grew stronger and faster as she stopped subconsciously holding back as the fight lengthened without her making any kind of progress.

She still didn't give or take any ground, though.

Robin sighed and ended the fight by flipping her over a shoulder and slamming her to the ground, then pinning her.

She sighed and gave up. "You win. By a landslide," she grumbled, annoyance rich in her voice. She looked up at him appraisingly as he let her up. "You are extremely skilled. I have never seen your like."

Robin laughed. "If you were from this world, you would not be so surprised. I was trained by the absolute best."

"Even the best teacher cannot train a pathetic student," said Artemis, not letting him brush off her compliment.

"Well, thank you. Would you like to try again? I'll show you how to move properly during a fight."

She smiled slightly, but her eyes were beaming in excitement. "Yes. I would like that."

* * *

Raven nearly crashed into Reville as she headed up the stairs to the kitchen and main room for dinner. She had been reading a book as she walked, and as usual, she blocked out almost all of her empathic abilities while she was concentrating on the material, in order to focus properly.

Thus it was a surprise when she let down her guard and was flooded with resentment. Anger. Self-disgust. And deep, deep jealousy.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" demanded Raven, moving to stand in his way.

He tried to brush past her, his face an unreadable mask, but she held up a hand glowing with black energy and shoved him to the wall.

"You WILL answer me!" she ordered. "I am not letting an angry empath/telepath endanger my friends! You cannot let yourself get into this state!"

Reville took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Raven felt most of the anger subside. The jealousy and self-disgust lingered, however.

"I cannot lie," he said, glaring at her. "So I will not be telling you I am fine. But I will not tell you what has upset me."

"You cannot lie?" She frowned, actually sensing the honesty in this. "You mean you're very bad at it?"

"No, I simply cannot. And I do not want to discuss this, so you will get nowhere no matter how you push me."

"Jerk."

Reville flinched. The self-disgust soared.

"I will not hurt anyone here. I promise. I am nowhere near my breaking point. This is a deeply personal matter I will have to resolve on my own."

Raven matched her eyes to his and stared into his black pupils for a long moment.

_Deeply personal. Self-disgust. Jealousy…_

"Does this have anything to do with your leg?" she demanded.

He looked away, shame clear on his face. "Now I know why so many people want me dead," he practically growled. "That just isn't fair. Please. Leave me to sort this out."

"No. We are sorting this out _now_."

Before they could continue, voices came into their hearing range, and they both felt Robin and Artemis approaching. Reville groaned and Raven's eyes darted back to him as the self-disgust and jealousy spiked again.

She let him go and he quickly set off down the hall as fast as he could with his limp.

"What were you guys doing?" Raven asked casually, as Robin and Artemis came around the corner.

"We were sparring in the gym," answered Robin. "Why?"

Raven's eyes drifted in the direction Reville had set off in. "Was Reville there too?"

"No," responded Artemis. "He didn't want to. He's probably still in the kitchen or main room."

_No, _thought Raven. _He was coming from that direction. From the gym, same as them. He must have been watching them._

"Did Reville actually say 'I will not be watching'?"

Robin frowned, not sure what Raven's point was. "No, actually. He made some sort of comment about how it's not fun to watch fighting as an empath, then he said 'have fun hurting each other'. Why?"

Raven tilted her head thoughtfully. "I'll have to get back to you on that."

* * *

_Author's Notes: Hope you enjoyed, and please review!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's Notes: I got a beta! Kudos to _Shadowy Flip Flops of DOOM _for all her advice on my OCs and ideas for future chapters/stories!_

* * *

—Chapter Ten A: Reville's Issues Exposed—

Dinner was quite enjoyable. Cyborg, Ray, and Robin tried desperately not to laugh their heads off as Starfire and Beastboy relayed their adventure to _Nancy's_ for Lore's clothes. Lore, completely oblivious to the admiring gaze from Starfire, the surprised look of approval from Artemis, and the widening of Raven's eyes at his new appearance, and also oblivious to quite how much his appearance had changed, acted quite normal as he contributed to the story. The other boys exchanged glances, swallowed giggles, and kept it a secret from him that he was wearing eyeliner.

The dinner itself was absolutely delicious. Artemis was a brilliant chef, and every slice of bread or sip of soup had people licking their lips and reaching for more. Beastboy raved about the salads and tried to get Artemis to agree to make something tofu-related, which she did not agree to but was willing to sample if he prepared it. Cyborg and Ray, who turned out to have more than they thought in common, devoured everything in sight, but there seemed to constantly be more. When the conversation turned, they started a rather impressive discussion on the dynamics of electricity, the thermal properties of various types of metals, and the true nature of light, quite changing everyone's first impression of Ray not being that smart.

Reville was quiet throughout the whole meal, and only Raven noticed. Everyone else was too busy enjoying the food and the lively conversations. Raven was also quiet, but then that was just Raven. Only she noticed Reville's mental flinch when Robin and Artemis started to discuss their sparring, but not a trace showed on his face or in his body language. Thus, Raven was unsurprised when he cleared his throat and asked to be excused, saying he'd like to do some research, if that was okay. Robin allowed him to go, after giving him directions to the library and the guest rooms.

Reville left and the conversation picked up again. Raven quietly excused herself, and the others just nodded.

* * *

Raven had no problem catching up to Reville, who's mental and emotional state was like a beacon at the moment. The anger was back, though nearly buried under the self-disgust and jealousy, swirling around a muddle of depression. If he did not calm down or find some type of outlet, he would begin to affect those around him whether he meant to or not. An uncomfortable fact about empathic and telepathic powers was the two-way nature of it. Most times the ability user could keep the road strictly one-way, but whenever the user was overwhelmed, either by themselves or another, the results could get very nasty very fast.

The black-haired empath hadn't gotten that far down the hall, and Raven was willing to bet he didn't even know where he was going, but was just walking for the sake of moving. She swept in front of him and blocked his way.

"I wish to speak with you," she said, in her usual cold monotone.

"I don't. I already have said more than I want to."

"Your emotions are not unusual for one who has been disabled. Let us talk about it."

Reville rounded on her, black eyes glittering with pent-up emotion. "Does the word '_personal_' mean anything to you?" he demanded angrily. "Don't you _dare_ start acting like you understand me!"

Raven glared coolly back at him. "I do not understand, and I will not pretend to. That would be an insult to you. But the fact is the way you are now is dangerous. You said you cannot lie. If you truly believe you are not a threat, that you would never hurt another, tell me now."

"I…" He stopped and groaned. A hand came up to hide his face. A wave of shame and embarrassment flowed through him.

"Tell me you have never hurt someone else by losing your emotions. You are no threat, correct?" It came out harsh, but then it was actually meant to.

He didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Didn't even try.

"You can't. Because this is not the first time. You have hurt someone before, haven't you? The guilt of forcefully breaking into, maybe even breaking, another's mind is not one that fades easily. Thus your statement that you had no desire to hurt others. And you have physically fought before you lost the use of your leg. What else would explain your emotional state after watching their sparring session? Maybe you were excused from combat, as you stated to Robin and Artemis, but you were most certainly trained."

"You…" he couldn't continue. It was just an excuse. A lie. She did understand, she did want to help, and everything she said was true.

He lowered his hand and glared at her. Raven was unsurprised to see his eyes red and hot with unshed tears. "This is not fair," he said. "Please, just leave me alone."

"I will. After you come with me and let me look into your mind."

"That is an extreme violation of my privacy!"

"And a necessary one. I will not tell anyone what I see, but it is essential for me to help you deal with this. If you are to be staying at Titans' Tower for any length of time, you are to be in a state in which I judge you as safe to be here."

Reville was silent.

"I can and will force you if you do not comply," said Raven, narrowing her eyes.

She meant it. Reville could sense it. She completely meant it.

He looked away. "I will show you what you need to understand my state, but no more."

"We will see," said Raven, sweeping past him. "My room is this way."

* * *

—Chapter Ten B: Two Brats and a Mastermind—

"Children, you are very lost," said a deep, and extremely smooth voice that seemed to echo around them. "Far from your homes, in a world you cannot possibly be accepted in."

The thief and engineer subconsciously stepped closer together and moved so they covered each other's backs.

A man in a strange orange and black outfit, his face hidden by a mask divided by the same colors, stepped out from the darkness into their small patch of light.

"There is no need to fear me, young ones. I can help you, if you but let me."

"Who are you?" demanded Key. The expression on Matt's face obviously mirrored the suspicion in the girl's words.

"I am called Slade."

"Never heard of you," said Key dismissively. "And what's this about being in a world that won't accept us?"

"You were not aware that you are in a different world?"

Matt spoke up before Key admitted anything, all the while glaring at the man. "Figured that out long time ago, old man. The question is how _you_ know anything."

Key's face brightened, showing full approval at this show of defiance from the small boy she'd just met.

Slade frowned. He had expected disrespect from the feisty dark-skinned redhead, not the baby-faced blonde. But there was no mistaking the fierce look in the boy's large blue eyes.

The man in the mask frowned, then held out a remote of some sort. He clicked a button on it, and the warehouse was flooded with light, revealing nothing but blank walls, abandoned crates, and a concrete floor.

"Come with me," he said simply, turning on his heel and walking off between a row of crates.

The twosome exchanged a look. Key shrugged and turned to follow Slade, but Matt grabbed her arm and held her back.

"I don't like him," whispered Matt, his blue eyes dark with suspicion and a trace of fear. "He wants something."

"Everyone wants something," responded Key, patting the blond boy's head as one would a child's. "Who's to say it won't be in our favor?"

"He thinks he can manipulate us. I know that look in his eyes."

"Eye. He only had one."

Matt angrily swiped at her hand, which had started playing with his soft hair. "You know what I mean! Those types can't be trusted!"

Key laughed. "Oh, chill, Matty-boy. No one can really be trusted." Then she smirked. "You just gotta make sure you come out on top. Now, c'mon, let's see what the dude wants."

She grabbed the boy's arm and practically dragged him with her as she followed Slade.

The masked man was waiting for them in front of a large metal door. When they caught up, he casually swung it open and went inside.

Matt and Key followed, and were instantly in awe at the sight. Key let out a low whistle; Matt just stared, eyes wide and happy.

It was some sort of command center, at least that was Matt's conclusion. Rows upon rows of monitors, showing all views of the city, and even the insides of buildings, filled the entire wall to their left. A huge computer monitor, plus banks upon banks of controls beneath it, faced them. And to their right were tables of laboratory and workshop equipment and tools, enough to make any inventor happy. Even seeing that all the technology was substantially behind what Matt was used to, he couldn't help the peaceful smile that swept over his face at the familiarity of mechanical company.

"SWEET set-up ya got here," said Key approvingly. "You some kinda mafia kingpin? Where's the family?"

"I'm afraid I work along, young miss."

"So who are ya anyway? 'Cause, just ta tell you, we ain't sayin' anything until you fess up."

"Slade, just Slade. A master thief, probably the best in this world. If anyone ever figured out everything I was up to, of course. As it is, most believe my activities are limited to Jump City."

"Jump City?" asked Key, and surprisingly her question was directed at Matt, not Slade.

"Here," answered Matt, frowning at her with a look of puzzlement in his eyes. Surely that should have been obvious?

"What about you children?"

"So," interrupted Matt, walking up to the banks of controls beneath the computer. "This is how you knew about us." Before Slade could stop him, his hands fluttered over the controls effortlessly, like a pianist's over a keyboard. His eyes on the keys, buttons, and switches were calm and confident.

Matt and Key turned their attention to the wall of monitors, now showing one scene, though from many different views. Their escape from the bank. It was quite impressive, seeing it from an outsider's view.

"Those blasted cameras," growled Matt beneath his breath, wishing he had trashed them anyway, if only to annoy Slade and the bank people. "None in the safe, though."

"Oh, not too bad, then," said Key cheerfully. "That means everything that happened in the safe is still private."

"Are there feeds on every camera in the city?" Matt wondered, again turned his attention to the controls. His expression was excited, all wariness forgotten. His hands again flew over the controls, and this time Slade did reach over and snatch the boy away, but not before each monitor broke into dozens of different views, most of the city. More than half of them were of or around a giant T-shaped tower on an island just off the coast, and several others were of rather strange places, such as one whose primary focus seemed to be a pizzeria.

Matt slipped out of Slade's hold and back to Key's side. "Not bad, old man," he said, grinning at the large computer and not even glancing towards Robin's infamous arch-foe. "That baby seriously could read every camera within 5000 miles, whether on a closed or open network. I bet I could make her sing."

Key laughed and ruffled Matt's hair again. "You know, Matty, you talk different when it's about computers. Sounds like you're complimenting the man's date or something."

Matt ducked her hand and stepped away, folding his arms in annoyance and not replying to her taunt.

Slade was beginning to get irritated. Where had all the guarded suspicion gone?

As if to confirm that he was being played with by children, Key and Matt started whispering together, gesturing at the monitors, specifically the ones targeting the tower. They even giggled!

"Who ya spying on?" asked Key. "A lover who spurned you? Ex-wife's happy new family? Fiancé with a few years to go yet? Pedigree puppy you want for yourself?"

"I'll be getting to that. If we could move on to introductions?" he said, tensely, not even wanting to _think_ about why all of her 'guesses' had such negative connotations.

"Sure, mister super- thief," replied Key cockily, pulling over and plopping into a large chair that was obviously Slade's when he was using this room, seeing as it had been facing the bank of controls. She leaned back and steepled her fingers in the classic 'all-knowing' gesture. "My name is Key. And I believe I shall be taking that 'best of' title from you."

"So you are a thief," said Slade, his voice with a smile in it, though to Key's annoyance he completely disregarded her threat to his claim of being the best.

"Absolutely. The Key to any lock, the combination to any safe. Just point me the way."

"How come you exited empty-handed from the vault?"

"Only garbage in there. Paper money, would you believe it?"

Matt understood the instant Slade closed his eye and looked upwards. He could just imagine the 'oh, god, she's an idiot,' expression on his face behind the mask.

"I have a feeling, Key, that in this world paper money is actually worth something."

Key froze, then her eyes narrowed in anger. "Oh. Just shoot me now. Bang. If that was straight up good cash, we could've had some serious fun with it."

Slade shook his head, then turned to look at the blond boy.

"They really should digitize everything," mumbled Matt to himself, then shrugged. "Not that I really understand the concept of 'money', having never used any." He noticed Slade's gaze on him, and his eyes instantly narrowed. Slade smiled to himself as he actually saw the guards go back up, clearly shown by the child's expression and the way he straightened his posture.

"Matt. I'm an engineer, from a world that makes yours look primitive. We're currently ruled by a tyrant, so if you're planning any 'take-over-the-world' nonsense, expect me to make your life a living nightmare."

"At ease," said Slade, shrugging. "I am a thief only, and have no interest in ruling anything. Though the power does sound like fun, I'm sure actual governance would be more of a nightmare then anything a child can come up with."

Matt smirked at the challenge. "Oh, if I could show you some of the devices I've pulled."

"Back on subject, children. You are interested in going back to your respective homes, yes? Seeing as I can safely assume something brought you here against your will?"

"Not really," said Key, quite upsetting Slade's plans. "My world's a step from dead anyway. Everything I value came with me."

Though that sounded like an awfully haughty statement, seeing as she had come alone, Slade frowned when she fixed that absurd green top hat, a smirk full of secrets on her face.

"I'm sure I can solve our problem without your archaic level of knowledge," replied Matt, again not in line with what Slade was expecting from two children from apparently dubious backgrounds who appeared out of nowhere. "I can build my own instantaneous inter-world molecular transport device, even in this world."

Okay, being a computer geek was one thing. Insisting he could build something to take him to another planet was quite something else. Slade's eye narrowed at the complete confidence the boy was brimming with, looking for any cracks in what had to be a mask.

"Hey, I wouldn't mind coming with you," said Key, getting excited, her attention on Matt. "I could help you, ya know, steal the stuff you need to build whatever. And you're part of a rebel group, right? I would totally love to join in and kick some tyrant butt!"

"You'll still need information," interrupted Slade, his voice clear and thoughtful. The children turned back to look at him appraisingly. "Where to procure your materials, who to avoid, geographical information, et cetera."

"Oh, are you suggesting yourself?" asked Key, grinning jauntily.

"This set-up is yours, on one condition."

"Which is?" asked Matt suspiciously.

"I do require some… assistance with a matter. It won't take more than a week of your time."

Matt did some quick calculations, then met Key's eyes. "It will take me about two weeks to put everything together, and that's after we manage to collect everything. And we have no way of knowing how long that will take."

"An amount of time our new friend could substantially reduce," said Key, tipping her green top hat to Slade. "Thank you for your most gracious offer, dear sir," she said in a fake pompous voice. "If we may discuss the details over tea?"

"Tea?" asked Matt, a look of disbelief on his face. "Yuck!"

"Well, I'd prefer cola myself. Ya got something similar in this world?" she asked Slade eagerly. "Oh, and I noticed you have pizza too!" She gestured at the monitor with the pizzeria. "Get us a couple, then we'll talk."

Slade smirked. "Splendid," he said. "I'll even throw in ice cream."

"Ah, an old man who speaks our language," laughed Key, cheerfully stealing Matt's way of referring to Slade, and giving the masked man a bad feeling that 'old man' would soon be their regular term of reference to him.

* * *

_Author's Note: Next chapter will probably be Reville's backstory. I already have it written, so it shouldn't take more than a couple days to for me to finishing editing and post it. Please review and let me know of any OOC moments, OCs turning into Mary Sues, ideas for future chapters, and/or questions and comments. Thank you!_


	11. Chapter 11

—Chapter Eleven: Reville's Reluctant Backstory—

* * *

_Author's Note: Warning! This chapter is VERY LONG and focused entirely on Reville's backstory and Raven's observations thereof. If you do not like OC backstories, feel free to read the first and last sections and continue on to the next chapter (whenever it is posted). I have the full backstory written, and if anyone is interested I'll go ahead and post it as a oneshot. _

* * *

Reville silently follow Raven down the quiet hallways towards her room. Neither spoke a word in the entire two or three minute walk, making the time seem to pass even slower.

They finally came to Raven's door. Raven pushed the door open and entered, leaving the door open behind her for Reville to follow. The empathic boy frowned, looked up and down the hallway for a way out, but seeing none reluctantly entered into the dark room.

The room was rather large, and filled with mysterious objects, huge, overflowing bookshelves, a bed hidden behind a canopy, and a huge window blocked out by drapes. Deep shadows clung to the corners, giving the impression that the walls were not truly the end of the room, and that far more than could be understood lurked… somewhere. Reville swallowed. He'd never seen anything quite so… creepy.

Raven gestured Reville to the empty middle of the room and had him sit down in a meditative pose, frowning the whole time at the alarm crawling around in the back of his mind. The idea of having her invade what he guarded so possessively deeply disturbed him, and while his posture remained neutral, those large black eyes flickered in fear as she sat across from him.

He absolutely did not want to show her anything. It was personal. It was… shameful. Pathetic. At least in his mind.

She was going to hate him. He just knew it.

Raven frowned at the emotions coming from Reville, but raised her hands and set the tips of her fingertips against his temples. He closed his eyes with a wince, and she could actually feel subconscious shields go up in his mind, blocking her normal entrance. She could still force her way in, sure, but she'd rather not hurt him if she didn't have to. She had a feeling whatever he had to show her would be quite traumatic enough.

"Open your eyes, Reville. You need to relax," she whispered. He blinked open his eyes, took a deep breath, and met hers. She locked them with her own and gazed deep into them, keeping her own face strictly neutral. As she felt him relax, she began.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos," whispered Raven ever so softly.

* * *

_Hot. Hot. So hot… _whispered a small child's voice in Raven's head.

Or rather, whispered a voice within a small child's mind – that Raven happened to be in. She opened her eyes and saw a huge black room. This wasn't where the child was; this was inside the child's head. She turned and saw a sort of gateway, and through it she saw through the child's eyes.

Flames.

As she watched, the gateway expanded and filled the room, wrapping around her, until she was actually in the child's body and mind, seeing everything he saw, feeling everything he felt, his every thought echoing in her own mind.

The child, Reville, for it was his mind she had entered, was curled up in the corner of a rapidly falling apart room, surrounded by flames getting closer by the second. Raven felt tears streaking down his face, the burning pain from the approaching flames on his skin, and panic setting into his mind.

_Hot… I have to leave. I could die… but mommy said to stay here. She said absolutely not to leave until she and daddy came back… Why haven't they come back? That was hours ago… Hot, so hot. It hurts… It burns. I'm going to die! Where are you, mommy?_

CRASH! The door fell in. The young boy screamed and stumbled backwards as the flames suddenly doubled in size and rushed at him.

_Have to leave! I don't want to die! Mommy wouldn't want me to die, she wanted me to hide! I'll have to go somewhere else to hide._

The door had actually smothered the flames directly in front of it, leaving the smallest of paths through it. The child licked his chapped lips, and crawled on all fours out the door.

The floor was burning hot, and soon the child's hands and knees were blistering. The child fought back tears and kept going, even when the path seemed to all but disappear. The child was very small, and could crawl under most of the smoke, but there was still enough to clog his lungs and make breathing the hot air even more painful.

_Mommy, where are you? Daddy, help me! It hurts! But… but… I'll find you. I can do this. I won't die._

It was probably inevitable. The house started to collapse before the child could get out. Raven screamed herself as the boy whipped around and he saw, SHE saw, the huge beam falling down on them. Her scream blended with the child's as it fell right on top of them, only just not crushing them because a piece of a rafter that had been tied to it kept it about 8 inches off the ground.

_No… where's mommy? Daddy? Help me! Someone help me!_

The child took a deep breath, realized he was not crushed, and started forward. Raven felt a yank around her waist, and realized something that the child had gotten stuck on something.

_Come on! Come ON! I have to get out of here! SOMEONE HELP ME! I'm going to DIE!_

He couldn't get loose. Hot tears again poured from his eyes, and fought to turn around to see what he was caught on. But he couldn't, not with so little room underneath the huge beam.

The fire was closer than ever, and surely the child's skin was burned badly just from his proximity to the open flames. The smoke was worse than ever, and the child started coughing painfully. Raven felt the pain as if it were her own, burning her lungs, crawling up what felt like a bleeding throat, ripping chapped lips and a swollen mouth.

_I'm going to die… I don't want to._

With the last of his strength, the boy managed to turn over. Something ripped his side, but now he could look for what he was caught on. His eyes were dry and burning, even with the hot streaks of tears pouring from them, and he fumbled for whatever was holding him with his blistered hands. They closed on something familiar. A chain. A long thin one, but intricately woven and very strong. The metal burned charred marks into the child's hands, but the child ignored the pain as best he could.

_I know this… It held mommy's chandelier. What happened to the chandelier? Not important… Have to get free! Quickly!_

With shaking hands, the child loosened the chain from where it had gotten caught around his body, but something was still pinning him down.

_What am I caught on NOW?_

He felt around again, and came to a series of spikes. Nails. A huge one was punched through the last link of the chain, attaching it to the beam, but ones nearly as large, and for architectural and structural purposes beyond a child's comprehension, were sticking in all directions. Raven could tell another rafter or something must've fallen from the beam, tearing the nails halfway loose, but she knew this information certainly wasn't important to the child.

Now that he had located what was pinning him, quite literally, he set his tiny hands over the huge nails and pulled and pushed and twisted and bent. This metal also scarred into his hands, but the small boy kept on, growing in desperation as more of the house collapsed around him. All his efforts were for naught.

The fire crept closer. The smoke got thicker. More pieces of the roof and walls fell, the crashes echoing, the vibration sending a painful ripple through the child's body.

_I'm going to die._

*No!* cried out Raven, forgetting this was a memory, and that the child certainly couldn't hear or respond to her. *No! You have to keep moving!*

_I'm going to die._

The child's body was getting heavy, his head ached, and he felt darkness closing in on him with each painful breath of polluted air he took.

Suddenly, a new sound started. A whoosh of water, the flap of heavy blankets or something similar, sounds of dozens of strong, healthy men. *What?* thought Raven.

The boy was past trying to think of what was going on. He hurt. He still thought he would die. Hope was here, but he figured it was too late for him.

A shattering sound, a wall falling outwards, and a rush of fresh, cool air.

_Air…_

The child blinked open his eyes and took a deep breath. The cool air worked wonders and his mind cleared enough for him to start struggling again. Raven gasped in relief as the pain in her own lungs and mind subsided.

_Maybe… maybe I won't die. Live! I want to live!_

"That strange ringing in our heads was definitely coming from this room!" called out a deep voice, and a man in some sort of heavy leather overalls came into view, coming through the busted wall, a sword in hand.

_Soldier. Fire squad…_

"Help…" whispered the child, in a cracked voice that certainly couldn't be heard over the crackling fire and crumbling structure. He whimpered and tried again. "HELP!" he cried out, in a scratchy voice, breaking but audible.

The man rushed over.

"Counselor! I found him!"

* * *

Time seemed to rush forward. In a blur, Raven observed Reville being put in an absolutely enormous room, and left entirely alone. Days went by, only interrupted by that man, Counselor Aleman, bringing in food and roughly seeing to the child's wounds. There was an attached bath to the room that the child used to clean up, once he could walk steadily again. Once the worst of the burns were gone, the child was dressed up and presented to the king. Afterwards, the child spent every day at the king's side, and every night locked up in the room, chained to his own bed.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the child grew desperate. By now he'd been forced to the realization that his parents really were dead, but his mind drifted to a Grandmother Celina he'd met a couple times. She was also an empath, but it was a big, big secret. But, if he could escape quietly, and get to where she lived in Damarask Forest, she would take him in and keep him safe. He'd overheard his parents actually talking to her about it before one time when they thought he'd gone to bed.

Raven couldn't help but admire the confidence the small boy had that, one, he could escape a castle filled with soldiers where he was watched constantly, and two, that he could make a journey to wherever his grandmother lived without being caught. Not that he was foolish, absolutely not, for his mind was filled with plans and insights and clever schemes. Every day he would study the watch patterns of the guards, practice his empathy on those around him, and pay strict attention to conversations about travel and politics.

Soon months had passed, and Raven started to observe a sort of malicious joy in Counselor Aleman when he would take the child back to his room for the night. The man started talking to Reville, and the conversations were not pleasant small talk. The child would tremble, and sometimes even whimper and cover his ears. Raven could understand enough, even with time flashing by so fast, to know the man was cheerfully telling the young child all about prisons, torture sessions, and executions. And occasionally reminding the child how his parents were dead and his hometown destroyed, all because they'd tried to hide an empath from the king.

* * *

The speed of Reville's memories sped up until they were whipping by in a blur. Raven wasn't able to make out anything but the vague impression that the boy had gotten away, though not in the way he had hoped, and was in a much better situation, though still not ideal. Such a strange child. Was he an optimist or a pessimist? He had elements of both, yet was far from balanced or stable.

He hadn't made it to his grandmother's, that much was certain. He seemed to be in some sort of… gypsy camp? There were tents and visions of a large, powerful man, and flashes of happy times with a man and a woman that seemed to be thieves.

After a while, things slowed down to a reasonable pace again.

* * *

Raven watched as a Reville that looked about thirteen led the two thieves she'd glimpsed earlier to an unguarded section of wall and they began climbing, with absolutely nothing other than their bare hands and feet.

_*They're not thieves,* _thought Raven, impressed as they scaled the equivalent of a three-storey building, with the only hand and footholds the smallest of incongruities, none jutting out more than an inch, between the large stones that made up the wall. *_They're ninjas.*_

The threesome made a trip through the castle that would have had Robin impressed. Maybe even Batman. That three-storey wall was only the first of four outer walls. Then they scaled the building itself in order to enter through some sort of servant's quarters. Through the castle itself, ducking into rooms with snoring occupants whenever an awake guard came in their direction. Up several staircases, and outside onto a balcony again. Then it was merely climbing another storey up the outside of the castle, along what appeared to be a perfectly smooth surface.

_*Yep, totally ninjas,*_ was Raven's conclusion. And she found herself quite impressed with how easily Reville was handling himself. He was only panting slightly, and he had been the one in the lead the entire time, making use of his abilities to keep them from getting caught. He was quite proud of himself too. He knew he was good, and he was confident he would complete this mission flawlessly.

He reminded her of Robin. She remembered the present-day Reville was lame, and suddenly understood his jealousy. _*If he could once move like that, but lost it all…*_

Events continued on. The two thieves kidnapped a girl, a princess, and then the three of them headed back to their camp. Time seemed to speed up again, too quickly to follow very well, and when it slowed down Reville appeared to be on some sort of guard duty over the girl.

* * *

The girl confused Reville. He was confused what he felt for her, since it didn't make sense that you could like someone you just met so much, and she herself was giving off a confusing mix of emotions. Mostly fear, though. A fear so strong it sent shivers down his own spine.

The Princess grabbed his arm, this time with both hands.

"Help me," she asked, eyes wide and pleading.

"I won't. That would be betraying the clan."

"Kajor is going to torture and kill me."

She meant it, and she was terrified. Her eyes were beginning to tear up.

Reville tried to shrug it off, but Shara could see in his black eyes that she was getting to him.

"Do you know what he does, Reville? He burns people alive. He has a room built of stone, filled with pools of oil and open fire pits. He lights the pits and pools, throws a prisoner in, and locks the metal door. Sometimes he lets them out before they die, sometimes he doesn't."

_*Oh, not good*,_ thought Raven, the memory occurring to her the same instant it came back to Reville. Burning alive. He knew very well what that felt like.

_I don't want to die… _whimpered the child's voice inside Reville's mind. He gulped.

"I don't want to die," whispered Shara, hugging Reville's arm, the tears falling. "Please, Reville. No one else here will help me. You can escape with me. I promise my father will protect you; he's a just man. Please."

She started out as trying to persuade him, but now she was just begging. As she went on, her voice grew choked. Her fear traveled through her arms wrapped around Reville's arm and almost knocked him over by the time it reached his mind, which was still fogged with memories of being surrounded by flames and smoke, of feeling his skin burn all around, his hands and knees blistering as he crawled, the beam falling and pinning him down…

"I'll do it," he decided.

_This is stupid,_ part of his mind lectured himself, a part that sounded remarkably like the present-day Reville Raven knew. _Naphdar WILL catch me, and he WILL punish me. Severely. He may even kill me. I will lose everything I've gained. Madeline and Drake, the respect and listening ears I've always craved, a place to belong to. For what? A princess who'll go on to marry her prince and forget about me? _

For some reason, the idea of her forgetting about him bothered him very much. To Raven it made perfect sense, especially for a thirteen year old boy towards a pretty girl, but to Reville the feeling was completely alien.

"I'll do it," he repeated, and grabbed her arm, almost dragging her out of the tent.

"Wait, where are we…?"

"Be quiet," ordered Reville. A half-second later, a clansman passed the tent. The man's eyes caught on the white ribbon around Reville's waist, a sign of his position in the clan. The clansman bowed slightly and continued on.

Reville explained quickly, all the while pulling her along with him towards the edge of the camp. "We have to go now. If we wait even ten minutes, someone else will come, and Naphdar is planning on moving camp towards Kajor in a matter of hours, so things are about to get very busy."

"Thank you!" whispered Shara, her emotions revealing her heady happiness and excitement, though she certainly was confused at the cold boy's sudden seeming change of heart.

He hurried her to the edge of the camp, using his abilities to dodge aside whenever someone else approached. He was too far to the edge of the camp to make any sort of excuse why he had the prisoner with him.

A shout rang out. Reville grabbed her hand tightly and started running, hauling her along. Behind them, shouts rang out. Reville flinched and stumbled as angry waves started radiating from the center of the camp, getting strong by the second. He caught his balance and shoved the princess behind a large rock with a slight overhang.

"Hide here. Don't move." He pointed south, south-west. "Jarked is a four hours run in that direction. Most of the clan will chase me, and you need to run home as fast as you can once they disappear from sight. I can't keep them busy for more than twenty minutes. And I have a grandmother."

"Huh?"

"In Damarask Forest. Not anytime soon, but find her for me, would you? Tell her I'm sorry I never went to her."

"What?" Shara grabbed Reville's arm as he turned to leave. "Wait! Tell me why! You're going to be okay, right?"

Reville tried to shake off her hand, but the girl had a frighteningly strong grip, which only tightened when he didn't answer anything.

Her eyes widened. "You're not going to die, right?" she whispered.

"I don't know," said Reville. "But you just focus on getting home. You still have a home." The last part had come out almost spitefully, but somehow the princess knew the anger wasn't directed at her.

_*If anything, it's directed at himself,*_ thought Raven, frowning. Even all these years down the line, Reville still saw that house that burned down, that city he had lived in with his parents, as his home. And that blasted Counselor had succeeded in convincing the child that the destruction of that home was the boy's own fault for being an empath.

The shouting from the center of the camp was getting louder. Reville was beginning to have a hard time focus, as one word began chanting in his head.

_Traitor. Traitor. Traitor…_

"Let's run together!" she whispered fearfully. "We can make it!"

"No, we wouldn't," said Reville matter-of-factly, and finally managed to free himself from her grip. Before she could protest further, he took off in a different direction, as fast as he could possibly run, knowing that the girl's life depended on this.

Sound faded, and all Raven could hear and feel was the pounding of Reville's heart and the aching of his mind and body as the rage from betrayal pounded into him from the direction of the camp. He ran far faster than he ever had before, straining every muscle to its limit, and even then he heard the most elite of the clan's trackers and hunters right on his tail, and gaining fast.

He managed to just barely stay ahead of them for about the twenty minutes he promised, but he had no way of being sure.

The color started to fade to a blurry gray and white, and Raven found herself suddenly separate from the young Reville, as if watching from the outside. Apparently Reville had not been able to completely deal with what had happened, what was happening before her eyes, and was now, unconsciously, trying to keep Raven from seeing what had to be a very private moment.

Being beaten unconscious by people who had held you in the greatest esteem had to be quite the bad experience. Especially while being an empath and feeling the brunt of every passing angry thought and emotion.

Raven had seen worse, but it still was quite ugly to see the boy kicked and punched and thrown around until he fell unconscious. But this was a memory and it's not like she could change the past.

* * *

Naturally, Reville being unconscious, everything went white for a few minutes before resuming. She was back in the thirteen year old's head, and able to feel the pain pounding his body as he woke, confused, alone, and surrounded by negative intention. And his hands were shackled together and chained to the central pole of the punishment tent. Not that it was surprising, but his white ribbon was gone.

The only positive thing his senses told them was that they had not managed to find Shara. While that was quite strange, it at least meant his efforts weren't in vain.

Madeline and Drake, the two thieves that he had lived with, that had gone on the mission with him to capture the princess, came and said something. Raven wasn't sure what, mainly because Reville refused to be comforted. He had committed the gravest sin a clansman could, and of his own free will. The two thieves tried their best to convince Reville of something, while in the meantime they took care of his bruises and wounds.

Raven frowned thoughtfully when Reville's eyes glanced over a particularly disgusting wound on his right leg. Had that been what caused his lameness? It didn't seem quite that serious.

Reville seemed to be in a bit of a funk. Certainly the lack of sound was not from lack of importance or attention, as the boy spoke freely and without impediment with Madeline and Drake. Time seemed to move at a normal pace, and feeling was muted, but the pounding pain was too much to hide even in a memory.

After a few hours, Reville was taken to Naphdar, the chief of the clan. He was yelled at, scolded, and thrown around heedless of his wounds. Madeline and Drake tried desperately to argue in Reville's behalf, but were shut up again and again, until an enraged Naphdar actually punched Drake in the face and coldly ordered them to leave immediately until he summoned them.

After stating the same thing to Naphdar that he'd said to Madeline and Drake, namely that yes, he had willingly set the princess free so she would not have to face King Kajor, Reville stopped talking. Ultimately, he was chained to the central pole of Naphdar's tent as an uncooperative and irredeemable traitor. Days went by.

* * *

"You are of no use to me, Reville. You refuse to explain your behavior, and you refuse to do anything to correct the situation. My honor has taken a blow. I have never failed before. You are now a liability."

Reville lowered his head, eyes closed, feeling the full weight of the accusation and his own guilt. What could he say? It was all true.

Events again sped up, only to slow down as a huge, military-looking king entered Lord Naphdar's tent.

* * *

"WHY YOU LITTLE…!" roared King Kajor, the king Shara had been so terrified of. He fisted an enormous hand and took a step forward. Reville couldn't help flinching away, but suddenly Kajor froze. Reville's eyes widened as Kajor's mind flowed into his. He paled and began to shake.

The man wanted him. To torture him. To use his abilities.

"How much?" asked the violent king.

"For what?" asked Naphdar, smiling slightly.

"For the BOY, of course!"

Naphdar folded his arms and tilted his head, as if deep in thought. "I don't know, Kajor… You were willing to give the Great Diamond of Marmak for a mere princess, with little more value than a bargaining tool. An empath, however… Ah, there are perhaps three empaths in the known kingdoms, and out of all those, Reville is the only one younger than 70. Reville's power has always been quite strong, and he's brilliant at interpretation and incredibly perceptive. His abilities can only increase in worth, as he gains more power and control, along with experience. To add to his value, for some absurd reason he is incapable of lying..."

"The Great Diamond…"

"More. The Great Diamond, yes, but also the Crown Ruby."

Kajor took all of two seconds to think about it.

"Done. But only if you can prove his worth."

"Feel free to examine him."

Kajor approached Reville with the grace and power of a lion. He grabbed Reville's chin. The boy was shaking.

"Look at me," he demanded. The boy's panicked eyes flicked open and met King Kajor's bright green ones.

The king smiled. "Eyes blacker than night, indeed. I can't even make out a pupil. Not something one can hide, and quite remarkably unique."

Reville shivered and trembled, unable to hold back his reactions to having such a wicked, sadistic man's touch on his bare skin.

Kajor's eyes held his own, as hypnotic as a snake's.

"What of his powers?" asked Kajor, not breaking his eyes' hold on Reville's.

Naphdar smirked. "Think of something dreadfully violent."

The affect on Reville was immediate, drastic, and not something any amount of control on Reville's part could have prevented.

Reville gasped, suddenly unable to breathe as violent images flooded his mind. The blood dropped out of his face, he broke into a sweat, and he tried desperately to yank himself from Kajor's grasp.

Raven felt quite sick at the visions herself, but had unfortunately seen worse and long since conditioned herself from allowing such things to affect her state of mind.

The king smiled in absolute delight and took a firmer hold on the boy, this time pinning his shackled hands by the chain with one hand, the other hand grasping the boy's neck. He continued 'thinking'.

Reville's eyes shut tightly from the pain, and he couldn't suppress the pitiful whimper that escaped his throat.

"P-please," begged Reville, in a manner his normal personality would burn in shame at. "P-please s-stop…"

The king finally looked away, his mind now swirling with excitement.

"What was that, Naphdar? I have never had an empath react to my thoughts before. Only my anger, my irritation, my power – emotions, you could say."

"Reville has always had a deeper sense than normal empaths," replied Naphdar, smiling. "And that extra sense will continue to get stronger and stronger. As you just saw, he can already read minds, though he can't control it yet. If he had not betrayed my clan, I would never let him go. He's worth far more than any two gems, no matter how priceless. Getting such a prize for the Great Diamond and Crown Ruby is greatly undervaluing his worth."

Kajor smirked. "We have a deal, Naphdar."

Kajor fetched the gems from his party waiting outside the camp. He brought them back to the tent, and handed them to Naphdar. The clan chief unlocked the end of Reville's chain and handed it to Kajor. And thus Reville became the property of the King of Marmak.

"Ah, careful of his leg," said Naphdar, as if the matter only just occurred to him. "He was beaten when he was captured after freeing the princess. Apparently he led my trackers quite the merry little chase, in a very different direction from wherever the princess set off to. He should heal in a couple months."

"Handicaps are quite useful features," said Kajor, smirking and pulling the chain roughly. Reville stumbled forward and landed flat on his face, unable to use his bad leg to regain his balance.

Strangely, a flicker of embarrassment and shame came from Naphdar, but the man said nothing. The boy had betrayed him, and what happened to him was no longer of any importance.

Kajor yanked on the chain, pretending to be impatient, but really just enjoying watching Reville struggle to climb to his feet while being tugged forward.

* * *

"Your majesty?" asked a soldier, one of very high rank, probably some sort of commander, for he had no fear in approaching such a cruel man. "What of Jarked's princess?"

"Got away, but I got something better. Ralt's empath, would you believe?" replied Kajor, handing the end of the chain to the man. "Get him on a horse and let's get out of here before that fat clan chief comes after me for more gems."

Kajor swung up on his own horse, and the man, having noticed Reville's limp, actually lifted the boy up and set him in the saddle. Sensing the boy's embarrassment at being treated like a small child, he patted the teenager's shoulder.

He was a good man, sensed Reville. A family man, with four kids and one on the way, who cared for his widowed mother and only worked for such an evil king out of loyalty to the crown of the kingdom he was born into. And he thought Reville looked like a good kid.

They would arrive at Kajor's castle all too soon.

* * *

Reville shrunk away as far as he could, still being chained to the wall. "P-Please," he whimpered pathetically. "P-please don't!"

Kajor reached out and grabbed the chain, dragging Reville forward. Then he shoved the boy face-down to the ground, a large hand on the back of his neck, and _thought_.

Visions of people being burned alive on stakes, in prisons, and in that special furnace room flooded Reville's mind, all with far too much detail to be imaginary. Reville's whimpers soon became cries of pain and fear as he actually _felt_ the flames from the visions burning into his skin, himself being put _into_ those terrifying images.

Raven had to separate her own mind from Reville's memories, sparing herself from experiencing the boy's ordeal.

* * *

Eventually Kajor got bored. Unfortunately, the entertainment value of torturing Reville's mind had last a good couple hours. The boy was a sobbing wreak by the time he was finished. Raven tried to reconnect with the boy's mind, but in all honesty there wasn't much there, and what was there was disjointed, traumatized, and spinning in self-destructive circles. Eventually, the boy realized he was no longer pinned, and curled into a protective ball, shielding his head with his arms, not that such a gesture could help him at all.

It took him about an hour to recover. Slowly, so very slowly, his thoughts and emotions stopped spinning, his sweat dried, his breathing slowed, and his shivering stopped. He managed to sit up, though he leaned in complete exhaustion against the wall. In that time, Kajor left, had his dinner, and returned.

"Feeling better?" he asked casually.

Reville didn't even try to lighten his glare at the evil man.

"Now, now, stop that. My revenge is complete and I've already moved on, so you should as well. You're going to be working for me, of course, so I have no intention of breaking you."

"Breaking?"

Kajor smiled just so, pulling a vision of the last man he'd 'broken' to mind.

Reville flinched. "Stop that."

The evil king laughed. "You'd best get used to it, boy."

Reville opened his mouth to respond, then suddenly a look of surprise came over his face as, being past the worst of his mental torture-session, his abilities again began to stretch outward, sensing everyone within the palace and finding two very familiar presences.

_Shara? Grandmother?_

It had to be them. Shara's pure, bright mind was unmistakable, and he'd never forget the soft, gentle, yet firm, responsible touch his grandmother's mind had held the few times they'd met so very many years ago. What on earth were they doing here?

_Of course! Naphdar's men never found Shara, because she _didn't_ go back to Jarked! She went to my grandmother and… oh, no. NO! They came to rescue me! _

_*Stupid princess,* _thought Raven, already knowing where this was going. _*Running into the lion's den after all Reville did to spare her, as if she could help him. Stupid, stupid girl is just going to make things worse.*_

He licked his lips and closed his eyes, focusing on the new presences in the castle, and specifically the two he sensed alongside Shara and his grandmother.

_Not good. They're not alone. _He would recognize those other two minds anywhere, though the owners of them had mastered the talents of almost completely disguising their presences, and had the rare ability to keep their emotions and thoughts completely neutral when on a mission, allowing them to hide even from most empaths.

_Madeline and Drake. They came for me… They abandoned the clan and came for me… Why? _

They were still too far for him to read their thoughts or their motives, so any reasons as to why the four had come to save him was beyond his comprehension. He was a fool with a bad personality and incapable of taking care of himself. Other than his powers, he was useless, and because of his powers, his very existence put others in danger. Got others killed… like his parents. His city…

He was so overcome with confusion, surprise, and fear, that he completely forgot Kajor was in the room with him, until the man bodily lifted him by the neck and slammed him into the wall, instantly jolting him back into the room, black eyes wide and staring into Kajor's furious green eyes, narrowed and suspicious.

_Bad. Very, very bad._

"What is going on?" demanded Kajor icily.

_This is going to hurt._

Reville clenched his jaw, shut his eyes, and waited for the pain to start.

_I can't say anything. No matter how much it hurts. He'll kill them. He'll kill all of them. And it will be my fault._

"It's that blasted princess, isn't it?" asked Kajor's voice, right next to his ear. The voice was trembling in excitement.

_No! _

Reville's eyes opened quickly and he opened his mouth to scream the denial out loud, but nothing came out. Why? Why couldn't he lie? Lives depended on him telling Kajor that the man was wrong! Four lives, the only four people in this world he had left, that he cared for, that actually _liked _him!

Tears came to his eyes as he desperately tried to get the word out, that one simple word, but it didn't. He couldn't even shake his head. His powers forbade him from giving any form of untruth, and any attempt to persuade Kajor he was wrong would be an untruth, a lie.

"Oh, how fun! Aleman, quickly!" called out Kajor excitedly. The counselor rushed in, the same counselor that had delighted in brainwashing Reville so many years ago in Ralt's castle.

"Shara is in the castle right now! Isn't she, Reville?"

_I have to warn them! My grandmother is an empath, shouldn't she be able to read me? GET OUT OF HERE!_

Their presences only continued deeper into the castle, closer towards the throne room that Reville was chained in.

_No, no! My grandmother shouldn't be weaker than me!_ _Why isn't she responding? _

As they came closer, he sensed how troubled they all were, his grandmother especially as she 'read' Reville's presence, but there was no panic or trembling in her mind, like there should've been if she had the same powers as Reville. Raven could tell easily that the old woman was nowhere in Reville's league, a simple empath and nothing more. No wonder everyone thought Reville such a prize.

Reville's mind, whirling in panic, again shifted away from the room and his own situation.

_I have to save them! I have to get free!_

Kajor frowned, reading the panic and desperation on Reville's face even without empathy, and drawing the correct conclusion as to what was going through the boy's head. He threw Reville to the ground.

Reville was jolted back to the room as he crashed painfully to the ground, landing hard and jarring his bad leg. He clenched his teeth to bite back the cry that rose to his lips, not letting more than a whimper escape.

"Planning to escape? Thinking of saving that princess again? Now, we can't have that," said Kajor casually, setting a foot on top of Reville's bad leg.

_Wait…_

_*Oh…* _Raven readied herself, and it was hard not to close her eyes and look away.

Before Reville could protest, Kajor shifted his weight and smashed his foot down on top of Reville's wounded leg with an ear-splitting CRACK, shattering bone and tearing through already torn and damaged muscles and nerves like parchment.

Reville's mind blanked and he screamed, completely convinced his leg had been severed and he would never walk again.

"Can't escape with only one leg," said Kajor casually after Reville's scream came to a breathless halt, stepping down from where he'd been pressing his foot on Reville's now destroyed right leg.

"Excellent idea, my king," commented Counselor Aleman, just as casually. "An empath doesn't need to walk anyway."

* * *

"**Stop. Please stop,"** begged a voice directly into Raven's mind. It seemed to come from present day Reville, but he shouldn't be able to communicate with her while she perused his memories. They couldn't stop yet anyway. She sensed there was still more to Reville's unstable mental state. Just a little more.

* * *

Counselor Aleman stayed to watch over Reville while Kajor went to personally alert his guards and search for the princess.

Turns out they were underestimating the wrath of an injured, desperate empath-telepath.

Raven knew how this was going to turn out from Reville's mental and emotional state, and finally understood his self-hatred. She had long since hated herself for the same reason.

He was going to use his powers to destroy someone's mind. To hurt someone.

Reville, sweating buckets, mind spinning and emotions in a turmoil, managed to drag himself over to the wall and sit upright. He looked down at his leg, which barely looked like a human leg anymore, but at least was still attached to him, then glared in absolute hatred over at Aleman.

He didn't know how he did it. He didn't even know he _could_ do it.

Aleman screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his head.

"Release me at once," demanded Reville in a cold voice that sounded nothing like the boy Raven had come to know, that she'd accompanied on his journey thus far. With his powers, he'd somehow completely encircled the man's mind, his very being, holding it hostage to his whims.

Aleman trembling, looked up and over to the black haired, black eyed boy, his eyes seeming to be far blacker than anything he'd seen before, and completely empty of any emotion other than hatred and rage. The man was absolutely terrified.

_Monster…_ whimpered Aleman's thoughts in Reville's head, as, shivering, the man unsteadily pulled a key from a pocket and started over to the boy. He reached the teenager's side and held out the key, flinching as the empath's fingers touched his as the boy yanked the key from his grasp.

Reville quickly unlocked the manacles from his wrists. Before he could get any further, not that he had any sort of plan, Kajor returned.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" demanded the king, mood switching from casual to furious in seconds.

Reville's grip on Aleman's mind slipped, and, sensing the change, Aleman lunged forward, pinning Reville to the ground beneath him.

"He did something to me!" quickly explained Aleman, fighting with the desperate empath. As if to prove Aleman's point, the man suddenly screamed, clutching his head and falling away from the boy. This time the screaming continued even after Reville tore his mind away from the counselor's and mentally lunged for the source of his pain, the evil king in front of him.

Kajor was ready with a grin. It was like crashing into a wall. Reville mentally attacked the wall, desperate to smash through it and hurt Kajor as much as the man had hurt him, but suddenly was blasted back by visions of fire.

Reville whimpered, and suddenly everything seemed to come crashing down around him. He found himself back in his own mind, reeling with pain from his useless leg, and completely shocked as to what he had done to Aleman and tried to do to Kajor. Aleman's screaming had degenerated into senseless sobbing and crying.

Kajor's green eyes were wide and greedy, and Reville knew why. The man had just found his tool could double as a weapon.

_A weapon? A monster? No! I'm not! I won't!_

The king clapped his hands, and Shara and his grandmother, an elegant woman with long silver hair and blue eyes almost as dark as Reville's, were pulled into the room. Their arms were bound behind their backs and their mouths were gagged. Both sets of eyes fell on Reville, filled with concern and… affection? For him?

"Can you do that on purpose?"

_No. Absolutely not._

Kajor gestured and a guard pulled Shara forward and raised a knife to her throat.

"Kill her," he ordered.

_He wouldn't!_

The guard raised the knife and was about to lower it.

_NO!_

Not knowing how, Reville again lunged forward with his mind, smashing into the man's mind and sending him reeling. The man screamed.

And Reville realized it was the commander that had been so nice to him earlier. The family man who'd felt pity for him. He fell backwards quickly, releasing the man.

The commander recovered and glared in hatred at the empath, all gentleness and pity gone.

_Monster!_ thought the commander, looking away in disgust, still trembling in pain, and on the alert for another attack from the dangerous creature in the same room as them all. Who, the man was sure, could and would kill them all in the blink of an eye.

That word and all the emotions behind it stabbed deep into Reville's heart, creating a wound that might never heal. Because he deserved it.

He was a monster. A pathetic, useless, dangerous monster who only brought ill-fortune on anyone stupid enough to care for him.

* * *

"**No more,"** whispered Reville in a half-choked voice. Raven realized with surprise that it was the current Reville's consciousness speaking, breaking through the trance.

"**No more, no more."**

Everything faded to black, then back to the present, and Raven found herself sitting across from Reville, watching the now much older teenager, tears leaking from his eyes, broken. All hopes and dreams shattered.

"There's still more, isn't there?" asked Raven softly.

He didn't answer, and that alone was enough of an answer from someone incapable of lying.

"… You had to face that furnace room after that, didn't you?" she asked, her voice it's normal flat, blank tone, which was oddly comforting to the current overly emotional Reville.

"Kajor wanted to ensure that… that I'd never disobey him…" he whispered, barely audible.

Raven took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, before continuing.

"But you escaped in the end?" she asked softly.

Reville swallowed his sobs, ashamed and embarrassed of showing himself in such a state. He impatiently wiped his tears. "Yes. Eventually. It took Madeline and Drake a couple months…"

"I assume your leg was not treated in that time?" asked Raven.

Reville shrugged, trying desperately convince himself it wasn't a big deal. "It was past healing by the time we reached Shara's father's castle. He took us all in. As for my leg, it just… is. Since it's technically not injured anymore, I doubt even Lore could do anything about it. Though I admit I was… hopeful, when I learned of his ability. But I quickly realized he was reacting to pain he sensed in others."

Raven had noticed the same thing, and it was one of the reasons for her concluding Lore's powers were the result of a unique aura, and not some miraculous superpower or magic.

"And he never reacted to you."

"No. He didn't. I… waited. Nothing."

"But it's amazing you can even walk."

Reville had no comment to that, though Raven could sense there was a painful story about suicidal thoughts and years of pushing himself beyond his limits, all on his own, to get to where he was now. In a world without physical therapists, that was incredible.

"And so, with your hopes dashed, you became jealous of Robin and Artemis?"

"Mostly Robin," said Reville, not able to meet Raven's eyes. "I used to move just like that. I can still remember the freedom, the ease of it all. Now, I can't even walk straight."

He shook his head, suddenly on the verge of crying and hating himself for it. Wanting desperately to be strong and emotionless, to not have to think, to shove his memories back in the past and NEVER think about them again.

"I don't know what Robin _thinks_ he knows about me, about why we were sent here, but I will not be any help. I cannot fight physically, and I will not let myself fight mentally ever again." His voice choked and he stopped.

"I can't do this…" he mumbled. All the emotions he had held before seemed to overwhelm him, and Raven set a hand on his shoulder and used her own powers to try calm him down. Instead of helping him to come to grips with his situation, being forced to relive his memories had made his state far worse.

"I cannot help you," she admitted.

"I never thought you would not be able to."

"But I would like to tell you a story. Of a young girl, being raised by her single mother, on a world called Azarath…"

* * *

_Author's Notes: Okay, that's enough of Reville's backstory. Don't expect me to do that for the other characters, at least not in this story. I won't be retelling Raven's story, since I assume all you Teen Titans fans already know, and next chapter we get back to the plot! Uh, hopefully… I'm sure some reviews would help me focus!_


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Note: I'm considering pretty much scrapping what I have here and doing a complete re-write, since this story is apparently not very well received and thus must need a LOT more work. Three reasons I'm saying so: (1) I haven't received any reviews since chapter 9, which is quite telling, (2) I've only had 14 reviews, by the same 4 people (who I hate to disappoint), which is really sad out of 11 chapters and over 690 hits, (3) I've actually LOST people that had alerted and/or favorited this story (and I never had over 4 of either anyway) telling me I'm doing something wrong. If you have any ideas for the rewrite, or any clue where I'm going wrong, please let me know. I won't be abandoning this story, but I would like it to be something others actually enjoy reading._

_Chapter 1 of the rewrite has been posted already, so if you've been following this story and were disappointed with the first chapter, please let me know if it's any better. _

* * *

—Chapter Twelve A: The Next Morning—

Beastboy was the first to realize something was wrong the next morning. He came up to breakfast with the strangest look on his face.

Robin, Artemis, Starfire, and Cyborg were already there, eating a whopping breakfast of ham, eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and more fresh baked bread (plus mustard for Starfire, of course).

"Are you okay, little man?" asked Cyborg in concern, seeing the glazed, almost frightened look in his buddy's eyes.

"Uh, how to say this?" The green changeling licked his lips and rubbed the back of his head. "I think the Beast is back. I trashed my room sometime last night."

Robin frowned. "We better run some tests immediately. It could be a reaction to…"

Then Lore walked in, his habitual smile nowhere to be seen. He looked exhausted and ashamed, and his eyes swept toward everyone sitting at the table and he blushed bright red.

"I… I'm sorry," were the first words out of his mouth.

"So it was friend Lore who made friend Beastboy lose control last night?" asked Starfire, looking concerned.

"I did? Oh, I'm very sorry!" began the white-haired boy, sounding like he was about to repeat himself at least five or six more times.

"You didn't know?" asked Artemis, frowning. "Then what were you apologizing for?"

Lore's blush grew. "The… the front door doesn't work."

"How is that your fault?" asked Cyborg, frowning. "It's probably a malfunction. I'll check the system specs after breakfast."

"No, I…"

Robin interrupted, frowning. "Actually, I think I understand what he means. Star, could you go to the roof? Just radio what you see."

The beautiful Tamaranian princess looked like she was about to ask why, but Robin nodded slightly towards a Lore who looked like he was trying to make himself shrink. Her heart went out to the sweet boy, so she merely nodded and flew off to the roof.

Cyborg stood up, having a strange feeling about this, and walked over to the large windows, looking out.

"Whoa…" he said, at a loss for words.

As far as he could see, the entire island was covered in green. There certainly had not been fifty foot trees on the island before, just as he was pretty sure the view from this window had been of a sandy, yellow beach the other day. He quickly opened his arm and began running scans.

The others, noticing Cyborg's reaction, set down their own breakfasts and came to join him at the window. Beastboy whistled appreciatively. Artemis sighed. Robin was silent and thoughtful.

Starfire's voice came over the communicator about half a minute later.

"Robin! The island is covered in flora!"

They saw a flash of red and purple as she flew down past the windows in front of them, going down for a closer look.

"How bad is it?" asked Robin, not sparing any words.

"Whah! It grew!" exclaimed her voice in surprise.

Robin glanced back and saw Lore an even brighter red, flushed to the tips of his ears. He hadn't tied back his hair this morning, at least not yet, and it hung in front of his face like a drape, hiding most of his expression. The boy wonder grabbed Beastboy's arm to catch his attention, then gestured at the white-haired boy.

"He needs to calm down," he said softly. "Cheer him up, would you?"

Beastboy nodded and trotted off.

"C'mon dude, let's go watch TV. You haven't _lived_ until you've seen all 362 episodes of Super Monkey Smash Sisters 12!"

"But I…"

"They've got it under control. Plants are no big deal," said Beastboy casually, pulling the boy along by his sleeve.

When they were out of earshot, Robin lifted the communicator back up.

"Star? Report."

"The flora has encroached on and completely surrounded our Tower's base," Starfire's voice answered professionally. "I can burn us out with my starbolts, but it will take a few hours."

Robin actually blinked. "Just how thick is this stuff?"

"There are vines thicker than six inches, and are not these types of trees called California Redwoods? Two of me could not circle some of these trunks. The grass is about four feet high, and some shrubs are…"

"Enough, I get it," said Robin curtly, rubbing his forehead, images of one of Batman's enemies, Poison Ivy to be exact, running through his mind.

"Oh, my!" suddenly exclaimed Starfire.

"What now?"

"How pretty!"

"Star?"

"Suddenly everything is flowering!"

"The stupid cartoon," grumbled Robin, hearing Lore and Beastboy's laughter from the other side of the room, in front of the huge TV. "Thank god it's a comedy and not a horror."

"I better go help her," said Cyborg, his voice reluctant, but his eyes again trained on the sea of green outside the window. "My sonic cannon could cut our landscaping time in half. Though maybe we should just use a flamethrower…"

Ray chose that moment to come into the room, yawning and stretching. He noticed the group standing around the window and came over to see what the fuss was about.

"Oh…" was his only comment. "You'd think Flora was here."

"Of course it's flora," replied Artemis, raising an eyebrow. "What else would it be?"

"No, no. One of my elementals, also known as Evergreen. Whenever she threw a temper tantrum, our castle would look something like this in the morning. Of course, she could make the plants retreat back as well, so no harm was ever done."

"Unfortunately, apparently Lore can't undo this mess," said Robin dismissively, before giving Ray an appraising look. "Grab a bite to eat, then you're joining Cyborg, Starfire, and Artemis with clean-up."

Ray looked wary. "Are you sure this is a…"

"Cyborg will be there if anything goes wrong. And it won't really matter if all that green goes up in flames," said Robin dismissively.

"What are you going to do, Rob?" asked Cyborg, curious why he had not volunteered himself to help out.

"I'll be consulting with Raven. It's probably not a coincidence that neither she nor Reville have showed up yet, so she likely started some sort of training for him the other day. I have a feeling that preventing this and similar issues might be a little harder than simply not letting anyone EVER put Lore in makeup again."

* * *

Raven groaned as she rubbed her face and sat up from her bed. She hadn't slept at all. Between Reville's nightmares, all fresh in his mind after forcibly reliving his past the other day, and Lore's mental screams of horror when he woke up in the middle of the night and realized he had make-up on, she hadn't gotten any sleep.

There was a knock on her door, and she easily sensed it was Reville, as exhausted as she was. Well, of course, with those nightmares. And Lore's alarm had probably woken him up as well, though perhaps that had been something of a relief. She slid the door aside and gestured him to come in.

"Would you like to learn to meditate?" she asked, not looking at him, as she arranged herself in the correct position on the floor and closed her eyes.

Without a word, as his relief made his gratitude more than obvious, he sat across from her and copied her pose.

"Relax," she instructed. "Close your eyes. Think of a single word that means something deep and precious to you. Focus only on that word, and…"

BANG BANG BANG!

It wasn't really that loud, but it certainly felt that loud to the two hypersensitive empaths who hadn't slept a wink.

"Raven!" called out Robin. "Raven, are you up yet? Is Reville with you?"

Raven sighed and got to her feet. Not bothering to walk, she floated over to the door and slid it open.

"What?" she asked, her weariness clear in the strain of her voice.

"Last night, Lore…"

"Freaked out. I felt it."

"Well, we're trapped in the tower. The Tower is completely surrounded by various types of plants."

"Do you need my help to clear the refuse?"

"No, actually. I'm sure Starfire, Cyborg, and Ray can handle it. I'd like to talk to you about Lore. Before that, though…" he looked around her shoulder, seeing Reville, still in the lotus position and breathing slowly and deeply.

Raven followed his glance, then stepped out of the room and shut the door behind her. Reville's mental state was actually leveling out already.

"How's Reville doing?"

"I am now aware of the extent of his issues. I am planning to instruct him on how to manage such issues and prevent them from interfering with his abilities."

"Could you do the same with Lore?"

"My senses tell me Lore's problems are substantially different. Reville could not cope with his problems, and Lore copes… too well." She frowned, not quite sure of how to word what she'd witnessed Lore doing with his emotions. "Or, rather, he doesn't cope, he deliberately ignores and discards the issue, instead of dealing with it. To illustrate, I can teach Reville to meditate so as to accept his traumas as part of himself, learning from them, instead of constantly fighting his own memories. Teaching Lore to meditate would be pointless, as he would have nothing to focus on, having already discarded the source of his problem."

Robin frowned, not quite understanding the point Raven was making.

"Remember the inside of my mind? Well, Reville's mindscape would be two parts of himself locked in an eternal struggle, his common sense and logic versus his trauma and anger, whereas Lore's would be… probably a small child sitting in the middle of a blank room, innocently asking you to play with him."

Robin frowned. "He's caused a rather extreme problem for an issue that you're saying he's discarded."

"Because he discards the issue, it is never dealt with. Something as simple as being a boy and getting upset being dressed up like a girl has probably always plagued him, and always will, because he's never actually sat down and thought about the problem and how he should react to it. I'm not even sure he would acknowledge it upsetting him so much. From what I've observed, he'll downplay the problem and change the subject."

"So what do we do?"

"I am not sure. His powers are aura-related, certainly, but they doesn't seem to follow the supposed rules regarding aura-related powers. Like…" her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, is it possible he's completely unique on his world?"

Robin frowned, consulting the correct file in his mind. "He didn't say anything about that, and nothing in my file indicates such a thing. But it is strange that he said his full-blooded family is completely normal, so it's possible."

Raven looked stunned. All her research suddenly fell into place, like a puzzle she'd finally solved. "I had only heard rumors of such before. Robin, I get it. He's probably an Amalgamation."

"A combination of something?"

"An Amalgamation, a combination of all the power that _should_ have been in his world. For some reason, it was all born within him, within one being instead of thousands. That's why his power seems so natural, why it's related so strongly to plants, animals, and healing, why he claims to have never had any training as an aura-user, but has such impressive power. It even explains why he throws away negative emotions instead of dealing with them – with so much power, if he did not immediately get rid of any threat to his cheerful demeanor, he could cause incredible devastation. It would be similar to… to me losing my control."

Robin groaned. "You mean he could cause an end-of-the-world scenario."

"I will finish instructing Reville on meditation, then I shall make preparations for Lore."

"I would prefer him learning to focus his powers _without_ destroying the world, if that's possible. If not, he'll just have to be the healer hiding behind the rest of his team. In fact, that might be best."

"I'll have to visit Lore's mindscape. I can get him to reveal his true self there, and in a room with the proper seals, it should not affect the real world."

Robin nodded. "Good. I'll be discussing with everyone later today what is really going on, but to give you a rough idea, I need to make these six…" He waved his hand, unable to find a word to sum up the unusual combination of characters. "Well, we need to make them a team, a team capable of traveling across different worlds and working together on potentially complicated missions. That's why we need to understand each of the four we have found, and locate the two missing."

The whole Tower suddenly shook. Raven rolled her eyes, mumbling something negative about Ray, and Robin's communicator beeped.

"Stray lightning bolt," explained Cyborg's voice via the communicator. "But he's getting better…"

Robin had a bad feeling that the latter comment was only because Ray was within hearing distance.

"We have a lot of work to do," grumbled Robin. "At least Artemis – sorry, Arthur, seems simple enough to handle."

Raven nodded. "Crossdressing is incredibly minor compared to the issues of the other three. We can only hope the missing two teammates will be equally easy to train. Perhaps, while Reville practices meditation and I examine Lore, you could take Artemis with you, Starfire, and Beastboy, and search for their missing teammates? You could train her while Cyborg tries to work with Ray."

* * *

_Author's Note: __I am always open to ideas/suggestions/criticism, so seriously please review or PM and give me your personal opinion of this story, no matter how negative. _


End file.
